The mercury only just cracked double figures on Monday, creeping up to 10.4 degrees Celcius at 1.30pm. At the same time, the feels-like temperature was just 2.7 degrees.

That apparent temperature floated in and out of the negatives for much of the day.

It's the coldest start to summer in Orange in over a decade, with the 12.1 degrees recorded on December 14 back in 2008 the previous benchmark for chilly December days.

More importantly, the cold conditions arrived with a welcome 14.6mm of rain, with 10.4mm of that total record up to 9am when a sheep graziers warning was issued for the region.

The temperature is expected to dip to about 3 degrees overnight, with the lowest record minimum temperature since the Orange weather station was based at the airport in 1996 bang on zero degrees.