ORANGE residents woke on Sunday morning shivering as the coldest temperature recorded in the city this year played havoc with body temperatures and plumbing alike.
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According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), which takes its readings at Orange Regional airport, the low mark of -7.2 degrees Celsius was hit at 3.07am, coming within a whisker of the breaking the record for the city’s coldest temperature: -7.7 degrees on July 2, 2002.
Incredibly, at 3.30am and with the temperature at -5.8 degrees, the ‘apparent temperature’ – which factors in the effects of wind – was -10 degrees.
The -7.2 degrees was about four points below the city’s July average, and many residents reported it had caused their home’s pipes to freeze or burst.
The damage wasn’t limited to just residential buildings, with Orange Aquatic Centre management taking to social media on Sunday afternoon to declare their building’s plumbing had been hit by the overnight freeze.
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In a post on Facebook the centre informed swimmers they had closed the pools, and would be unlikely to reopen them before Tuesday.
“We have multiple burst pipes caused by our very cold weather this morning,” the post read.
“Due to the need to isolate electrical and water systems we are unable to maintain water quality.
“At this stage we expect to be closed tomorrow [Monday] as well.”
Saturday wasn’t much better in terms of warmth, kicking off what was always going to be a chilly weekend with an overnight minimum of -5.8 degrees.
The coldest place was at Marangaroo, not far from Lithgow, where the Defence weather station registered a low of -11.1 degrees at around 7:20am.
According to www.weatherzone.com.au the top temperature on Sunday will be 8 degrees before another chilly night predicted to get as low as -5 degrees.
There’s good and bad news in city’s the seven-day forecast.
Sunday night and Monday morning are tipped to be almost as cold, with a low of -5 forecast, but the remainder of the week is likely to be warmer, with minimums ranging from -2 degrees to 1 degree.
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The top temperatures will be on the (slightly) warmer side, too, with Thursday’s 13 degrees the high mark in the next week.
Other parts of NSW experience record cold temperatures overnight.
The coldest place was at Marangaroo, not far from Lithgow, where the Defence weather station registered a low of -11.1 degrees at around 7:20am.
Armidale was the second coldest spot in the state, with -10.1 degrees recorded at the city's Tree Group Nursery.
Glenn Innes, which is renowned for being nippy in mid-winter, experienced a low of -9 degrees, while at Cooma airport it was the coldest it had been in seven years at -10 degrees.
The thermometer fell to -6 degrees in Dubbo, “the lowest annual minimum temperature in the 26 years the weather station has been operating," BOM forecaster Jordan Notara said.
