One state has shivered through the coldest morning of the year, while other states are preparing for an unseasonal blast of hot weather.
Melburnians have shivered through the coldest start to the year so far with overnight temperatures dropping to just 7.8 degrees on Tuesday morning.
Frost also covered parts of NSW with some areas in the North West Slopes recording temperatures in the “lowest 10 per cent” of average April minimums.
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Helen Reid said it was not as cold as Monday’s chilly start, but it was still quite cool across NSW.
“The wind has eased off since yesterday so there is a very dry air mass at the moment, so it’s actually very deceptive because the sunshine is lovely and warm but as soon as you step out you feel the cold,” she said.
Sydney only reached an overnight top of 10.3 degrees.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Susanna Paleg said the cold morning across Victoria had also caused frost to settle around the northeastern part of Victoria.
She said there was “quite an extensive area” of fog around the La Trobe Valley.
Despite the freezing morning, Ms Paleg said Victorians could expect mild temperatures for the rest of the day with a top of 19 in Melbourne and 23 in Mildura.
But she warned it would only be a short reprieve from the cold, with “damaging winds” and showers developing overnight and into Wednesday.
“It will be quite a windy evening,” Ms Paleg said.
“We have severe weather warnings for damaging winds in place for parts of central Victoria, East Gippsland and the Otways.”
The frostiness was definitely felt in Canberra on Tuesday morning, with the overnight low dropping to minus 1.1 degrees on Tuesday.
It comes as a cold air mass sweeping southeastern Australia this week brought an early start to winter, with some areas recording the season’s first dusting of snow.
Temperatures plummeted to 15 in Melbourne and just 13 in Hobart on Sunday, making it the “coldest day of the year” for the two states.
Melbourne can expect more mild temperatures towards the end of the week, with tops of 19 and 21 degrees expected on Saturday and Sunday.
Sydney’s outlook is significantly warmer for the rest of the week, although Sydneysiders can expect some “chilly starts” on the weekend.
It will reach a top of 24 degrees on Tuesday in Sydney and even higher temperatures for the rest of the week, with forecast tops of 29, 27 and 23 degrees expected.
It’s also hot in Brisbane with temperatures reaching 30 degrees on Thursday and Friday.
Adelaide is expected to reach a summery high of 26 on Tuesday, followed by a cool stretch of days reaching 21 degrees.
Canberra should expect some low overnight minimums of 5 degrees but mild highs of 20 throughout the week, while another cold front will lash Hobart on Thursday with temperatures plummeting from 20 to 15 degrees.
Meanwhile in Western Australia, the ex-tropical cyclone Seroja weakened on Monday into a tropical low and moved offshore, southeast of Esperance.
No lives were lost when the fierce tropical cyclone hit tourist towns in Western Australia, but the recovery is expected to cost many millions of dollars.
