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Tasmania's 2nd-coldest night on record

Anthony Sharwood, Thursday July 4, 2024 - 11:47 AEST

Just look at that incredible frozen landscape.

These fantastic other-worldly images of frosty trees and ice-fringed lakes were taken by local photographer Gill Dayton near the tiny Tasmanian town of Liawenee, which just recorded a night of –13.5°C – Tasmania's second-coldest night on record.

Source: Gill Dayton @TassieAppleSpice on Instagram.

We wrote on Wednesday about Tasmania recording its lowest July temp on record of –12.9°C. That record obviously just went out the window.

Overnight Liawenee also came close to the town's – and the state's – record low of –14.2°C, set back in August 2020.

FOR THE STATS BUFFS: CHECK OUT ALL THE LIAWENEE CLIMATE DATA

This string of intensely cold nights is being caused by a very cold and dry air mass, combined with clear skies and calm winds beneath an abnormally strong high pressure system, which is coming close to challenging Australia's maximum mean sea level pressure record.

High pressure systems promote cold minimum temperatures because they usually have clear skies, light winds and dry air near their centre. These conditions are ideal for overnight radiative cooling, which allows the previous day's warmth to radiate away from the ground into space.

Source: Gill Dayton @TassieAppleSpice on Instagram.

Why is this particular town so cold?

Subzero temps were again recorded right across inland Tasmania overnight, but Liawenee tends to dip down lower than anywhere else in the state due to two main factors:

Firstly, it is very high, with its weather station situated at an elevation of 1057 metres.

Secondly, it is located in a basin on the shores of Tasmania's Great Lake, the state's third-largest freshwater lake, and cold, dense air becomes trapped in the basin on still nights like we’re seeing this week.

It's for those reasons that Charlotte Pass village, at an elevation of 1760m, holds the Australian cold temperature record of –23°C. Like Liawenee, Charlotte Pass is high enough for consistent cool temperatures, but also lower than the surrounding terrain.

Source: Gill Dayton @TassieAppleSpice on Instagram.

What else do we know about Liawenee?

Liawenee bills itself as "Australia's coldest town" – although it's unclear on what measure this is based.

The town on the Highland Lakes Rd on Tasmania's Central Plateau is really just a collection of buildings with a fisheries office and a police station. Its official population is two people, so not too many folk would have suffered through last night's extreme cold.

The Great Lake which lies beside Liawenee is a popular fishing spot, although its annual Trout Weekend was cancelled in May due to Tasmania's dry autumn conditions. The town saw above-average rainfall in June which should help lake levels, although it is now the off-season for trout fishing in most areas.

With ice reportedly thickening to two centimetres or more on many Tasmanian lakes as this week's string of chilly nights continues, it’s probably not the greatest fishing weather anyway.

And for those wondering, Liawenee should warm up to a positively toasty 7°C or thereabouts on Thursday afternoon. The town's warmest day on record reached 32.3°C. That was in January, 2014.

- Weatherzone

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