Perth woke to 2.5C at 6.56am on Sunday, its frostiest May morning in seven years, as calm winds and clear overnight skies pushed temperatures down across Western Australia and into parts of the southeast. The chill eased only slightly by Monday, when Perth dipped to 4.5C at 3.24am and Jandakot fell to 2C at 7.22am.
The Sunday reading matched the lowest May temperature Perth had seen since May 19, 2019, after the city had already logged a minimum of 4C on Saturday. In the first 24 days of May, Perth's temperatures swung from 2.5C to 28.3C, a reminder of how sharply the weather has fluctuated this month.
Wandering, about 110km southeast of Perth, felt the cold even more sharply. It recorded -3.2C on Sunday morning and -1.5C on Monday morning, with the Sunday low marking the town's coldest May temperature in 14 years. The cold conditions also stretched well beyond the Perth metropolitan area, with single-digit coastal readings and near-freezing inland conditions reported on Monday.
Elsewhere, Perisher Valley in the Snowy Mountains recorded -1.1C on Monday morning, while Bridgetown fell to -0.4C, Norseman to 0.2C and Thredbo to 0.3C. The spread of readings showed how far the cold air reached, from coastal and suburban areas to inland towns and alpine resorts.
For Perth, the immediate question is not whether winter is arriving early but how long the swings will keep coming. The city has already moved from a near-freezing dawn to a warm 28.3C this month, and the latest cold snap has added another sharp turn to a May that has been anything but steady.
