Winter is only one week old and already seems as if it has been around forever.
Last night was the fifth in a sequence of overnight frosts and, as people donned more bed clothes, the temperature dropped to a minimum of -3 degrees.
If you were wondering why it took longer to defrost your windscreen this morning, it was still only zero deg at 9 am.
Minus three degrees was also recorded on Saturday night for the first time since July 1979.
The Lemnos weather station has recorded a -3 degree reading on only one other occasion, which was in July 1974.
Since the station began operating at Lemnos in 1961, Shepparton's rock-bottom temperature has been -4 degrees. That has been recorded on four occasions in June of 1966 and 1975 and occurred in pairs of consecutive nights.
So far this year we have had eight nights of frosts, which compares to last year's total of 11.
Shepparton could be in for another year like 1977 when there were 29 frosts, 15 of which were in July.
Rainfall for the year up until June has been below average.
In 1981, 39 days of rain gave 220.2 mm with 25 mm in the first week of June. This year's rainfall has been 161.2 mm over 28 days and nil rain has been recorded for June.
May's gift of 21.6 mm compares to 63 mm in May last year and an average for May of 44.7 mm.
It certainly looks set for a cold but dry winter.
19°C