Queenslanders are shivering before winter has even arrived, with inland regions recording their coldest May morning on record.
The mercury hit a low of -5.6 degrees Celsius in Oakey around 6.30am, but wind chill and other factors made it feel more like -9.5 degrees.
According to data from the Bureau of Meteorology, this is the coldest May morning on record for the town, just west of Toowoomba, with the previous low of -4.4 set in May 2019.
"That's a temperature record of 1 or so, so that just shows what a very cold morning it was in some parts of the Darling Downs," forecaster Danny Johnson said.
Oakey resident Bernie Tanzer said he could not remember feeling as cold as he did this morning for at least the past decade.
"The sun's up now, so it'll be right," he said.
"There was frost this morning — the chook's water bowl was frozen."
Mr Tanzer said a good jacket and a cup of coffee were the best ways to warm up before work.
Brian Barber regularly travels to Oakey from Brisbane.
But as he was popping into the bakery this morning, instead of just his usual footwear of thongs for the trek, he paired them with thick woolly socks.
"It's really cold," he said.
"It's thongs-and-socks cold."
A record was also set in Dalby, where the mercury dropped to -3.2, beating the -2.2 record set in 1911.
On the Darling Downs and Granite Belt, Applethorpe, near Stanthorpe, got down to -3.8 and Toowoomba reached 0.8.
Records have also been broken on the Sunshine Coast, which recorded to 3.3, and in Blackwater in the Central Highlands the minimum dropped to 3.1.
In south-east Queensland, it got down to 9 in Brisbane.
Amberley — where the official Ipswich temperature gauge is located — dropped to -0.8 at 4am and it may have been even colder. The weather bureau said the gauge had an outage between 4:30 and 7:30am.
Coolangatta on the Gold Coast dropped to 3, while Beaudesert hit 0.8.
The weather bureau said cool south-westerly winds were behind the drop in temperature.
But there could be some relief coming. Temperatures are set to rise over the coming days as a high-pressure system moves into the Tasman Sea, pushing an easterly flow onto the coastline.
"It's actually going to warm up a little bit for the next couple of days," Mr Johnson said.
"We've got some chance of showers as we head into the weekend. It's a medium chance at this stage. That'll push some showers onto the coast and maybe over the mountains."
While the coldest temperatures were felt in southern Queensland, parts of central and north Queensland also shivered through the morning.
The mining community of Clermont dropped to 6.5, while Mackay dropped to 12, but the apparent temperature was 6.5.
Snap comes after warm spring
The cold snap comes after much of Queensland sweltered through April.
Data from the Bureau of Meteorology showed 17 locations around the state had their hottest April day on record, including Hughenden, which reached 37.8 degrees Celsius, Yeppoon recorded 35, while it got to 34 at Alva Beach.
The Rockhampton Airport smashed its 84-year-old record, hitting 36.6, beating the previous record of 35.4 in 1942.
Several other locations, including Cairns, recorded their highest average daily temperature in 20 years, with warm and uncomfortable nights affecting much of the state in mid-April.
Minimum temperatures were also above average, with areas between the Central Coast and Cape York Peninsula experiencing temperatures in the top 10 per cent of records.
Additional reporting by Melissa Maddison and Ciara Jones
