While sweat and Queensland summer go hand-in-hard, people in the state’s west are reaching for cardigans as overnight December temperatures break record lows. From Birdsville to the Gulf of Carpentaria, temperatures dropped to 11 degrees Celsius below average – a phenomenon forecasters describe as “very unusual”. “I’ve been forecasting for a few decades now and I can’t really remember anything quite this spectacular as far as dry and cool at this time of year,” said Bureau of Meteorology forecaster David Bernard.
“It’s the sort of thing we often see in winter which usually leads to really cold winter nights, but we don’t often see it in December.” Mount Isa had its lowest overnight December temperate ever on record at 12 degrees Celsius – 11C degrees below average. “Burketown yesterday had a minimum of 17.7C which was the lowest they’d seen up there since 1920, but that was eclipsed today with 16C, and that’s the coldest December morning since 1907,” Mr Bernard said. “Richmond yesterday was 11.8C which was the lowest there in December since 1909.” READ MORE
