SO much for tropical weather – Darwin shivered through a rather cold morning as the mercury dipped below 20C.

At 6.30am it was a chilly 19.5C but felt like 14.9C.

If you woke up in the rural area, you would have had to put your woollies on with the temperature hitting 10.9C at Middle Point.

The city temperatures are below the August average minimum of 21.3C.

Bureau of Meteorology senior weather forecaster Chris Kent said the cool weather was due to a strong high system over South Australia.

“We had a storing high system sitting over SA and that’s keeping pretty much the entire country cloud free. That’s starting to move towards the east hence the winds starting to ease across the Northern Territory,” he said.

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The cool mornings are expected to continue tomorrow before easing.

Mr Kent said the dry windy conditions have also increased the fire danger for the Top End.

“The dry air and he windy conditions are leading to severe fire dangers,” he said.

“It’s very dry and quite windy and this time of year — we haven’t had rain for months and the grass is very dry and the vegetation is quite easy to burn.”

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Meanwhile, the Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service has urged Katherine residents affected by nearby bushfires to implement their fire plans.

Bushfires are burning at Stuart Estate, behind Usher Rd and Morey Rd, and multiple fires are burning near Zimmen Rd.

Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Services are aware of the fires and urge residents to put their bushfire plans in place.