A sheep graziers warning has been issued for Orange and the Central Tablelands, with freezing temperatures, rain and westerly winds expected to continue into Thursday.
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The Bureau of Meteorology issued the warning on Wednesday at 4pm due to the potential risk for loss of lambs and sheep exposed to the conditions.
The warning comes after Orange felt like one of the coldest places anywhere across NSW on Wednesday morning, with an "extreme event" resulting in the feels like temperature plummeting.
The Bureau of Meteorology's main weather station for Orange had the city shivering through an early morning feels like temperature of -10.6 degrees just after 7am on Wednesday morning.
The regular temperature at that same point in time was 1.1 degrees Celsius.
Weatherzone meteorologist Chris Matthews said the massive gap between the two temperatures is an anomaly triggered by a rare mix of low humidity and high winds.
"The drier the air and the windier it is, the colder it's going to feel - that's when you get those conditions that really bite," Mr Matthews said.
That wind will ease off by tonight, though, if not this afternoon and then we might be looking at some cold temps for Thursday, Friday morning.
- Weatherzone meteorologist Chris Matthews
He said that strong westerly wind that emerged on Tuesday continued overnight and led to the "extreme event", creating cool, dry air.
And it meant Orange, while not officially boasting one of the coldest temperatures of July 27, was certainly feeling every bit as cold as some of the chillest places in NSW.
At the same time as we woke up to that sub-minus-10 degrees feels like temperature, a place like Thredbo was at -6.1 degrees.
The feels like temperature in Lithgow dropped to a low of -5 degrees at the exact same time Orange's fell to its lowest point, while Bathurst's lowest feels like temperature on Wednesday morning was -4.6 at 3am.
Conversely, Sydney's feels like temp hit a low of 2 degrees just before 6am.
Wind gusts across Orange hovered between 50 kilometres-per-hour and 70km/h for most of Wednesday morning and Mr Matthews said that factor is contributing to the higher real temperature, which at time of publication was at 2 degrees Celcius, while the feels like was still at the extremely freezing -9.8 degrees.
"That wind will ease off by tonight, though, if not this afternoon and then we might be looking at some cold temps for Thursday, Friday morning," he added.
The BoM and Weatherzone.com don't have historical records for feels like temperatures.
But our official coldest morning of July, 2022 was -6.3 degrees Celsius on Friday, July 15.
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