Earlier this month, a new study named Canberra as the best place in Australia to raise a family. But many of our readers weren’t sold on the capital for one main reason: the cold. Aussies are almost immune to winter temperatures, which in some states are warmer than Scandinavia’s summer. But if you think Canberra is cold, you’ll want to pack extra woollies when visiting Hobart – which just took the title of Australia’s coldest city this winter.
To identify where people experience the chilliest winters, the team at Alliance Climate Control analysed Australia’s 100 most populated areas on seven metrics: latitude, elevation, temperature, humidity, wind, daily solar exposure, tree canopy and average heating costs. They then weighed the scores and gave each place a total out of 100, with higher scores equating to colder conditions.
Given that it’s Australia’s closest capital to Antarctica, it makes sense that Hobart tops the list as Australia’s chilliest place to live in winter. Despite not being the coldest based on temperature alone – the average dry bulb temperature sits at 8.94 degrees – Hobart’s southern latitude and low elevation of 19 metres contribute to its frost factor. Add in high tree canopy coverage (44.1 per cent), limited sun exposure and low moisture levels, and you get a city that feels especially chilly and damp.
The ACT LGA, which includes Canberra, ranks as the second-frostiest city in Australia. Due to sitting at a much higher elevation of 606 metres, it experiences the country’s lowest dry bulb temperatures of 6.8 degrees. But unlike Hobart, it gets more sunshine, less wind and less shade from urban greenery (33.6 per cent) – making its winter chill a tiny bit more bearable.
All the remaining top ten chilliest spots are in Victoria, with Kingston, Maroondah and Knox rounding out the top five. Temperatures in all these suburbs sit just above or below ten degrees, with small differences in wind speed, sunlight and tree coverage.
On the brighter side, Darwin experiences the mildest winter in Australia, with an average dry bulb temperature of 24.84 degrees. That’s warmer than it gets during summer in Hobart! You can check out the full results here, or see our summary below.
These are the 10 coldest cities in Australia
- Hobart, TAS
- Canberra, ACT
- Kingston, VIC
- Maroondah, VIC
- Knox, VIC
- Manningham, VIC
- Moonee Valley, VIC
- Whitehorse, VIC
- Brimbank, VIC
- Monash, VIC
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