Weather record smashed as Tasmania confirms coldest temperature ever
Just days after recording the first heavy snowfall in 40 years in Launceston, Tasmania has now recorded its lowest ever temperature.
Liawenee, in Tasmania’s Central Plateau, dropped to a bone-chilling -14.2C on Friday about 6am.
The area is a stone’s throw away from Great Lake and is about 100km southwest of Launceston.
Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard told Yahoo News Australia it was the lowest temperature Tasmania had ever recorded.
The previous lowest temperatures were recorded on June 30, 1983. Tarraleah Village, Butlers Gorge and Shannon in Tasmania all recorded -13 that day.
Bureau of Meteorology supervising meteorologist Simon Louis said Liawanee actually got colder than Casey Station in Antarctica.
"Casey station in Antarctica it only got to -12, so it was actually colder up at Liawenee than it would have been at least at Casey in Antarctica last night," he said.
Liawenee’s chilly Friday morning is due to a big cold front which remains in the region.
Earlier this week, it experienced lows of -10.2 on Tuesday, -4.6 Wednesday and -4.1 on Thursday. The top temperature it’s reached so far this week was 5.6 on Sunday.
At 9am on Friday, it sat at a blistering -5.8.
It’s a far cry from Australia’s coldest-ever recorded temperature though. That record is held by Charlotte Pass, in the NSW Snowy Mountains, which fell to a freezing -23 in 1994.
Mr Pippard said Hobart, Wellington and other areas around Tasmania had “pretty normal” temperatures for Friday morning.
But coastal areas on Saturday morning could be three to six degrees below the average temperature.
Launceston was transformed into something from A Christmas Carol on Wednesday when the area had its first settled snow since the early 1970s.
It didn’t seem to bother the locals though who rugged up and enjoyed skiing and snowboarding through downtown Launceston and the city’s parklands.
There is cloud about the south, lower east and southwest of #Tasmania in this satellite image. Snow is clearly visible on the Central Plateau, over the Ben Lomond Plateau, and at Mt Barrow, Mt Field NP and the Snowy Range. pic.twitter.com/c9JfCzkvgU
— Bureau of Meteorology, Tasmania (@BOM_Tas) August 6, 2020
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