The mercury in Bega dipped to minus 4 at 6am and didn’t start heading north of that until well after 7am.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the coldest August temperature recorded in Bega was -4.9 degrees in 1971, and the average minimum for the month is 2.6, making Monday’s frosty start the coldest in many years.

By 9am Monday, it was still 0.9 degrees, but had reached 10 degrees by 11am.

In Merimbula, the mercury nudged just below zero by 7am, but was rising past 14 degrees at 11am.

Up the mountain it was even more bone-chilling, with Cooma hitting an overnight low of -9.3 degrees according to Weatherzone – a nice symmetry with its Sunday high of only 9.5!

Meanwhile, parts of Australia's South East shivered through their coldest August morning in over 50 years on Sunday.

In NSW, Narrandera in the Riverina dropped to minus five, which is nine below average and the coldest August morning in 40 years.

Those in Cooma awoke to a very frosty morning with a low of -10.6 degrees while at Perisher Valley it dropped to a bone chilling -13.

Sydney didn't escape the chill with the western suburbs of Campbelltown, Camden and Richmond all dropping below zero.

The city itself had a minimum of just 5.5 degrees, the coldest in four years.

Canberra chilled to minus six making it coldest morning in over a year.

The frigid conditions were brought about by a combination of a very cold air mass, clear skies and light winds.

A robust cold front moved through the nation’s South East on Thursday and Friday, bringing a very cold air mass with it.

A high pressure system behind the front allowed skies to clear quickly and winds to become light -the perfect ingredients for cold nights and mornings.

The slow-moving high will bring a couple more cold mornings over the coming days.

- with Weatherzone

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