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Dry winter exacerbated by frost over growing regions

Jess Miskelly, Saturday July 22, 2017 - 12:43 AEST

Winter has made itself felt in recent days over the southeastern inland but not in the form of rain bearing cold fronts.

Overnight/early morning temperatures across a large swathe of agricultural land from Bendigo to Moree to Richmond to Albury have been 5 to 10 degrees below average for the last couple of days. Forbes and Cessnock had their coldest morning in more than 10 years on Saturday with -5 and -4 degrees respectively, while the Canberra and Goulburn regions had another sub -7 degree start to the day.

The accompanying frost will be having a drying effect on plants already dealing with a lack of rain. Typical rain producing cold fronts have been lacking so far this winter and 1 to 3 month rainfall totals across inland NSW and VIC are very much below average - Forbes had its driest June since 1944, and is so far running at the driest July since 1885 with only a week to go.

Thankfully, in terms of frost, there will be a warming trend over coming days as the atmosphere becomes a little more humid and a high pressure ridge over the east weakens. In terms of rain for the inland though, thereÃ¢â?¬â?¢s still nothing on the immediate horizon. Mid next week has early indications of bringing a strong cold front and associated low pressure system (a good set-up for southeast inland rain) to break the dry. Though, more than a 10 days in advance, nothing is certain.

- Weatherzone

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