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How cold can Canberra get on Anzac Day?

The National Anzac Day Dawn Service on the Parade Ground of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is a solemn occasion which is televised nationally.

It also happens to be one of the chilliest dawn services anywhere in the country. And that got us thinking: how cold can Canberra get on Anzac Day?

• Canberra’s lowest Anzac Day temperature on record was in 1999, when the mercury fell to a frigid –3.7°C. That remains the capital’s lowest reading on any day in April.
• Anzac Day 2024 in Canberra was another chilly one, with a minimum of –0.5°C.

READ MORE: A digger's letter from snowbound Gallipoli

But Anzac Day in Canberra does not always begin with freezing conditions. Indeed, the capital’s average April minimum is 6.8°C, while its average on Anzac Day since 2009 (at the current Canberra Airport official weather station) has been 4.7°C.

This year has been a good example of typical April variation in Canberra, with one night below freezing to date, and several nights so far where the minimum stayed in double-digit temperatures.

As for Anzac Day 2025, it’s set to be one of the mild ones by local standards, with a minimum around 9°C ahead of a balmy day with a top of 24°C.

When does Canberra’s first frost occur each year?

While Anzac Day itself in Canberra is not always frosty, local lore holds that the city’s first frost of the year usually occurs around Anzac Day. Is this accurate?

It’s actually a little earlier. In order for frost to form on grass, the temperature usually only needs to be as low as about 2°C.

That’s because the standard Stevenson screen height (the box holding meteorological instruments) is 1.2 metres above ground level, and the ground tends to be significantly cooler than the air immediately above it.

So to calculate the date of Canberra’s first frost, you need to find the average date of the first night with a minimum of 1.8°C or lower.

Based on a small sample of records going back to 2008, the average date of the first night with a minimum temperature of 1.8°C or lower has been April 13. This sample size is too brief to be scientifically robust, but it’s still an indication of the date of the first frost in recent times.

Image: Minimum temperatures across Australia on Anzac Day, 1999, when Canberra had its coldest April 25 on record. Source BoM.

As for the coldest Anzac Day temperature on record anywhere in Australia, it must be stated that the BoM only publishes climate extremes dating back to 1957, but in the 68 years since then, the chilliest Anzac Day reading was –8.4°C at Cooma Airport in 1999.

For those interested in the coldest temperature ever recorded in Australia on any day in April, it was –13°C at the small ski village of Charlotte Pass, NSW, on April 29, 2009.

Charlotte Pass also registered Australia’s coldest night on record (any month) with a bone-chilling –23°C on June 29, 1994.

Weatherzone would like to take this opportunity to express our respect and gratitude to all Australian servicemen and servicewomen, past and present. Lest we forget.

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