Record-breaking June cold brings Adelaide’s coldest June days, widespread rain and snow on higher ground

The Register (Adelaide) Mon 13 Jul 1903: ‘Early on Saturday [11 July] the thermometer at the Adelaide Observatory showed the lowest reading for the air temperature ever recorded since observations were first taken in Adelaide in November, 1856. At 9 p.m. on Friday the temperature of the air about 5½ feet above the ground was 37.5, and on the grass it was down to 31.0. At 6 o’clock next morning the air temperature was 32.2; that on the grass 27.5, and on a piece of cotton wool 22.1. The previous lowest reading of the air temperature was 32.3 on August 17, 1859.

The Advertiser (Adelaide) Mon 13 Jul 1903: ‘Last night [Sun 12 July] was exceptionally cold in South Australia, with very severe frosts, the minimum temperature of air at the observatory being the lowest on record since observations were first made’.

Evening Journal (Adelaide Mon 13 Jul 1903: ‘The minimum temperature at the Adelaide Observatory up to 3 o’clock on Monday afternoon [13 July] was 71 in the sun and 51 in. the shade. As far as can be ascertained, these are the lowest day thermometer readings for the year’.

The Advertiser (Adelaide) Mon 13 Jul 1903: ‘Early on Saturday morning the readings for the air thermometer ever recorded since it was first installed in November, 1858…Most people who were out on Friday night or early on Saturday morning were sensitive enough to know that the atmosphere was extremely cold, and they can now say with certainty that they never knew the air to be colder. What added much to the general discomfort was a biting northerly wind. Market gardeners and others going to the market before daylight, milkmen, and those whose duties brought them out early in the morning all testified to the extreme coldness and the sharp frost… The run of frosty nights which usually accompany bright sunny days has done much to hinder the growth of vegetation lately, but on Friday night the frost was unusually severe, and potato and other tender garden plants were badly cut. Long after sunrise the frost remained on the footpaths and anywhere that was hidden from the rays of the sun. Our Norton’s Summit correspondent writes: The sharpest frost of the season was experienced here on Saturday morning. Tubs of water were frozen over with ice over an inch thick. Every little pool of water – and there are plenty in this neighborhood at present, as it has been raining almost incessantly for the last two months – was covered with ice’.

The Advertiser (Adelaide) Tue 14 Jul 1903: ‘Eudunda, July 11. At 5.30 this morning the mercury stood at 28 degrees. Dams and waterholes were covered with ice, pumps were frozen up, and the ice had to be thawed before they could be got to work. The cattle troughs at the railway trucking yards were covered with ice half an inch thick. In some places the axe was used to break the ice. At 9.30 am the temperature was 38.7…Scott’s Creek, July 11. At 1 p.m. yesterday ice 1 inch thick was taken from a horse trough. Some damage to early potatoes and lemon and orange trees has resulted from the frosts’.