TEMPERATURES in Australia are dropping but forecasters warn this isn't just a brief cold snap - winter is here.

In the past few days much of the country has experienced the coldest temperatures of the year, despite winter not officially starting until June 1.

In Sydney the temperature dropped to 7.3C yesterday while residents in Adelaide awoke to 5.2C. In Brisbane the mercury was at a low of 7.9C at the weekend.

Although Melbourne hit a low of 3.5C last Tuesday, the city was basking in 11C yesterday.

In Hobart yesterday it was almost balmy, with a minimum temperature of 12.3C. But that appears to be an odd break after temperatures there sunk as low as 3.2C at the start of the month.

Bucking the trend is WA, with temperatures in Perth milder in the last two weeks than they were at the beginning of the month.

There will be some relief from the cold snap on the way – but don’t expect it to last long.



A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said the cold snap was caused by a high pressure system to the west of Tasmania.

“We have had a high pressure system to the west of Tasmania that has brought cold air from the south,” he said.

Over the next couple of days we should have a high over the southern states and that should bring more normal, milder conditions again.”

He warned that winter temperatures would stay. “Get those stockings and boots out, we are going into winter."

La Nina is dead but more wild weather to come

After flooding rain across much of Queensland and a terrifying Category 5 Cyclone, one of the strongest La Nina events on record has officially ended.



Weatherzone meteorologist Alex Zadnik said La Ninas were characterised by colder than usual sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean (near South America), with warmer than usual waters near Australia.

These sea surface temperature anomalies drove stronger than usual southeast trade winds across the tropical Pacific Ocean, boosting moisture levels across eastern and northern Australia.

A return to near normal sea surface temperatures through the Pacific had occurred over the past month.

"We can safely say the La Nina has concluded, following a once-in-a-lifetime event," Mr Zadnik said.

However, The Courier Mail reports, an International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists meeting on the Gold Coast yesterday warned of more radical weather events to come.

Chairman Rajendra Pachauri said climate change would see the world face more such extreme events, including cyclones, floods, droughts, heatwaves and fire.

Disasters "not linked to climate change"

But according to the world's leading authority on climate change, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri, linking the latest weather disasters to climate change would be wrong.

Mr Pachauri told the Australian the general observation that climate change was bringing about an increase in extreme weather events was valid but scientists needed to provide much finer detail.

"Frankly, it is difficult to take a season or two and come up with any conclusions on those on a scientific basis," Dr Pachauri said.

"What we can say very clearly is the aggregate impact of climate change on all these events, which are taking place at much higher frequency and intensity all over the world.

"On that there is very little doubt; the scientific evidence is very, very strong. But what happens in Queensland or what happens in Russia or for that matter the floods in the Mississippi River right now, whether there is a link between those and climate change is very difficult to establish. So I don't think anyone can make a categorical statement on that."

With the Courier Mail / The Australian