Sydney shivered through a colder morning than Melbourne on Tuesday, despite the two cities recording the same temperature.
Both cities recorded 7.6C at 7.30am on Tuesday – but in Sydney, it felt near freezing.
This is because the apparent temperature, or “feels like” temperature, in Sydney was 0.6C at that time while in Melbourne it was 5.3C.
The Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said wind and humidity were generally the main influences on the “feels like” temperature.
“In Melbourne we had winds of 9km/h at that time, and in Sydney we had 28km/h at that time … which made it feel so much fresher in Sydney this morning,” she said.
Melbourne technically hit a lower temperature than Sydney on Tuesday morning, but only just. The city hit its overnight low of 6.8C at 8.30am, with a “feels like” temperature of 4C.
In Sydney, the overnight low was 6.9C at 3.40am, but the “feels like” temperature dropped below zero.
“It was -0.4C, so actually feeling close to zero at that time, even though it was 7C,” Bradbury said.
Bradbury said it was not unusual for Sydney to have colder winter mornings than Melbourne, depending on the weather systems.
During the day, humidity tends to be more of a factor in influencing the “feels like” temperature than it is overnight, Bradbury said.
“A 28C day that’s humid in Sydney feels significantly different to a 28C day that has a nice breeze coming off the water,” she said.
The cold morning came after the BoM warned of very cold overnight lows expected to remain until Friday or Saturday. Daytime temperatures would return to average by about Wednesday.
Sydney’s “feels like” temperature dropped to 1.2C at about 1pm on Monday, as high wind speeds gave a biting edge to the actual temperature of 13C.
On the Victorian ski field of Mount Hotham, the mercury sat at an exceptionally chilly -8.8C on Monday, the coldest July morning in 34 years, according to Weatherzone’s Andrew Miskelly.
