Cold (dis)comfort

I shouldn't say that the weather has been unseasonably cold, since it's June. But I will, as it feels that way, especially after last year's much more clement winter.

Even so, I'll spare a thought for the inhabitants of the Top End, who've been subjected to the cruel and unusual punishment of a day when the maximum temperature in Darwin struggled to reach 20 degrees.

And the cold/cool/mild weather hasn't been confined to Darwin. The Australian reports:

Official statistics available yesterday showed that 13 towns north of the Tropic of Capricorn recorded maximums below 10C on Wednesday. Climatologist Blair Trewin said there were just 12 individual instances of sub-10C maximums for the tropics on record.

"Tennant Creek Airport's 8C is the northernmost sub-10C max ever in Australia," Dr Trewin said. "Camooweal's 9.8C is the northernmost recorded in Queensland."

Tennant Creek topped at 8.3C yesterday, about 16C below average. Darwin's top of 22.7C on Wednesday was a June record low and in the Queensland tropics, 40 towns set records for low maximums on Wednesday.