Cold snap hits region.

Shepparton recorded its coldest August day since 2014 with a minimum temperature of -2.9°C yesterday morning.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the Shepparton Airport site was 6.6°C cooler than the site’s August average.

Freezing: There were record low temperatures across Victoria yesterday morning.

The bureau’s senior climatologist Blair Trewin said it was unusual to have such a cold snap late in the year, with Melbourne hitting some record low temperatures.

Tatura recorded far cooler temperatures with a minimum of -4.1°C. This was a new August low for the town, which was previously -4°C on August 5, 2014.

It was the lowest temperature recorded at the site for any month since July last year.

On Tuesday morning, Melbourne Airport hit -0.4°C, the coldest August day since 1997.

Dr Trewin said there were a couple of underlying reasons as to why such low August temperatures were recorded.

‘‘One is that the basic underlying air mass is pretty cold,’’ he said.

‘‘But also because we had clear skies over the Melbourne area and light winds; that meant it was pretty well set up for overnight cooling.

‘‘We’re generally not seeing quite such significant numbers elsewhere in the state except for parts of the north-east.’’

A BoM spokesperson said temperatures averaged six degrees cooler across parts of central Victoria.

The cold snap did not leave Dr Trewin incredibly positive about rainfall levels.

‘‘It’s not looking like we’re going to get huge numbers from this event — but every bit counts of course,’’ he said.

This story from The Shepparton News by Tara Whitsead - “Cold snap hits region.”