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Alice Springs breaks free from coolest summer week in decades

A southerly change which affected southeastern Australia last week has had wide-reaching effects, cooling the interior and giving Alice Springs its coolest summer week in 28 years. It was also its coolest February week on record.

Southerly winds have persisted since early last week and have been dry enough to allow the Alice to cool below 15 degrees for seven nights in a row. The weekly average minimum turned out to be 13.1 degrees, more than seven degrees below average and its coolest week since summer 1983/84. In that summer there was also a week when the temperature dropped below 15 each night and averaged only 13.0.

The southerly change which led to these April-like nights in the Alice even had led to some chill in the tropics.

Borroloola, near the Gulf of Carpentaria has cooled below 20 degrees in each of the past six nights. Previous to February 2012, the Roper Mc-Arthur town had not recorded a sub-20 degree night in at least 24 years.

Across the Queensland border, Mt Isa on Sunday night had its coldest February night in 45 years of records, dipping to 13.1 degrees, 10 below average.

The airmass is gradually warming up and becoming more humis as southerlies give way to northwesterlies. By the end of the week temperatures will rise above average across the region.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2012

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