Do you live in Australia’s coldest town?
You’d think the coldest town would be located in Tasmania or even Victoria, as they’re usually reported to be the chillier states within the local Australian media cycle.
However, it may shock you to learn that dark horse NSW is home to some of the nation’s coldest places to live.
The coldest town to live in this winter has been recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology, who released a list of the top ten. According to The New Daily, the 6,724 residents who live in Cooma, southern NSW are used to rugging up as the average temperature in winter is a freezing -2.9 degrees Celsius.
NSW dominated the bureau’s top 10 coldest places list, as it claimed six places.
Bureau senior climatologist Blair Trewin said that it came down to how high the towns are above sea level.
“There’s a couple of factors behind why NSW dominated the top 10. One is that there are towns that are elevated to a much greater extent than in Victoria and Tasmania,” Mr Trewin told The New Daily.
“In the Northern Tablelands you’ve got towns close or above the 1000-metre mark, and in a lot of the Southern Tablelands there are towns around the 600 to 1000-metre mark.
“Then, on the other hand, Daylesford is 650 metres above sea level and there’s almost nothing higher [in Victoria] except for the ski resorts. So it’s partly about where people live.”
He also mentioned that cloud cover is a major contributor as to why the southern states didn’t rank higher in the list.
“Generally speaking, clear days will have a bigger difference in temperature between day and night than cloudy days,” he said.
“Tasmania and Victoria have cloudy climates, so they’ll have colder days but it makes the night warmer. It’s swings and roundabouts.”
Top 10 coldest suburbs through July
- Cooma, NSW at -2.9 degrees Celsius
- Berridale, NSW at -2.8 degrees Celsius
- Miena, TAS at -2.3 degrees Celsius
- Walcha, NSW at -2.2 degrees Celsius
- Nimmitabel, NSW -2.1 degrees Celsius
- Bendoc, VIC at -2.1 degrees Celsius
- Liawenee, TAS at -2.1 degrees Celsius
- Glen Innes, NSW at -1.6 degrees Celsius
- Woolbrook, NSW at -1.4 degrees Celsius
- Shannon, TAS at -1.4 degrees Celsius