A place just two hours’ drive from Sydney has been confirmed as the coldest city in Australia.
The town with 21,000 people is even chillier than Hobart, despite being a 1,500km ferry and car drive away from Australia’s southern-most state capital city.
The city, which is home to a maximum security prison, is even colder than Canberra, too, even though it less than 150km from the coast.
A place only two hours’ drive from Sydney is the coldest city in Australia
The town with 21,000 people is even chillier than Hobart, despite being a 1,500km ferry and car drive away from Australia’s southern-most state capital city
Sky News chief meteorologist Tom Saunders said that based on average temperatures Lithgow, on the western side of the Blue Mountains, was Australia’s coldest city with average temperatures of just 12.2C.
‘The reason Lithgow is Australia’s coldest city is elevation: it is the second-highest city in Australia behind Armidale, the elevation is 950 metres above sea level,’ he said.
‘We’re looking at the average temperature across the entire year so not the absolute coldest temperature and not the average minimum temperature in winter but the average of the minimums and the maximums throughout the year.’
Lithgow, 140km west of Sydney via the Blue Mountains, is even colder than Orange, in the New South Wales central west, which had average temperatures of 12.7C.
Sky News chief meteorologist Tom Saunders said that based on average temperatures Lithgow, on the western side of the Blue Mountains, was Australia’s coldest city with an average temperatures of 12.2C
Lithgow, 140km west of Sydney via the Blue Mountains, is even colder than snowy Orange, in the New South Wales central west, which had average temperatures of 12.7C
‘Orange is ‘probably the snowiest city in Australia but it does get quite warm in the middle of summer,’ Mr Saunders said.
Lithgow, where Ben Chifley worked as a train driver before going into politics and becoming a war-time Labor prime minister during the 1940s, was even colder than frosty Canberra, which had average temperatures of 13.1C.
The city is even chillier than the Tasmanian cities of Launceston, which had average temperatures of 13C, and Hobart on 12.5C.
Mr Saunders said this made Lithgow was Australia’s coldest city, when metropolitan and provincial population centres were analysed for average minimum and maximum temperatures.
Hobart and Canberra are still cold, with residents in both cities set to freeze through minimum temperatures of 4C on Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.
The small town was even colder than frosty Canberra (pictured), which had average temperatures of 13.1C
Lithgow is even chillier than the Tasmanian cities of Launceston, which had average temperatures of 13C, and Hobart (pictured) where the average temperature is 12.5C