The Bureau of Meteorology had predicted a minimum of minus 4 for the tablelands town, but the official record tabled yesterday was minus 11 at the town’s airport weather station. 

“It was the coldest so far this year,” Moree bureau weatherman Michael Glasson said.

“And we had the coldest morning in a couple of places so far this year too. It got down to minus seven degrees at Armidale, Tenterfield and Woolbrook and it hit minus three at Tamworth.”

Inverell got down to minus 6, which is also the record minimum for Tamworth for a June morning and was recorded back on May 25 in 2000. 

It was the coldest night in Tamworth since a minus five degrees reported in August last year.

The record minimum for Glen Innes meanwhile was set exactly 12 years ago to the day – on July 8 2002, at minus 12.8 degrees although it also recorded the same low on August 9 in 2008.

At Glen Innes, the locals were talking more about the expanse of frost that froze some water pipes until after the shops opened in some places and provided some low lying fog bands in gullies.

“We had a reading of minus 8.4 degrees at 7am in town but I can tell you it felt like minus 13,” one office worker said.

According to some, the airport reading is often a few degrees colder because of its open site but plenty of people underestimated the chilly slump.

“We saw the forecasts and it was for minus four, but we knew Armidale had been down to minus 5 and yes, we’d had minus 6 last week or something like that,” local council tourism manager Peter Teschner said.

“But I think it surprised a lot of people. Our tourism officer, Fred Blair,has been here for about 14 years and he thought the frost was quite significant.”

Expect some more of the same this morning although the daytime top is expected to be about four or five degrees higher in places like Tamworth today but there’s another significant cold front heading for us over the next couple of nights and Thursday’s top in Tamworth will slump by up to eight degrees from today’s daytime high. 

The bureau is forecasting more frosts and some more minus temperatures from Friday through to at least Monday. 

Snow is predicted on the southern and central ranges, although Moree bureau officer Michael Glasson says there could possibly be snow down to 1100m early Thursday south of Armidale, most likely around the Barrington Tops.