A chill in the air

Many parts of New South Wales have not seen much rain this year, with Sydney seeing the driest start to May on record. [Getty Images]

On Thursday 24 May, South Australia suffered temperatures which were as much as 10C below the average.

Thick cloud insured that any warming sunshine was kept at bay, meaning temperatures in Adelaide struggled to just 11.3C. This is nearly 9C lower than yesterday and very close to the record low maximum of 11.2C, which has remained unbroken since 1892.

The cloud also delivered heavy rain. 19.6mm of rain were recorded up until 9am local time on Thursday, which is the most rain received in one day for two months. Other parts of the state were celebrating their wettest day for over a year.

South Australia wasn’t the only place to be noticing a chill. In New South Wales pouring rain also caused the temperatures to plummet.

On Wednesday 23 May, the temperatures in Sydney climbed to a pleasant 23C, but the next day the temperatures only struggled to 16C, a whole 7C lower.

On the positive side, the rain for NSW is much needed. Sydney experienced its driest start to May on record, and much of the region endured a particularly dry autumn.

All of this chilly, wet weather is thanks to a trough of low pressure which is creeping over eastern Australia. Over the last few days this weather feature has been pepped up by an injection of moisture from the Coral Sea.

This system is expected to clear from NSW on Friday, but both NSW and South Australia are expected to remain shrouded in cloud until Monday or Tuesday next week.