http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/mond ... ing/526372
Mondayitis amplified by cold morning
Ben Domensino, Monday May 8, 2017 - 16:13 EST
An icy start in New South Wales and the ACT made it even harder than usual to get out of bed this morning.
A high pressure system combined with a pool of cold air in the wake of a front sent temperatures plummeting overnight.
It was the coldest May morning in six years for parts of the Central Tablelands, where Orange and Bathurst both dropped to minus 4.5 degrees.
Impressively, today's minimum was colder than any morning last winter at both Goulburn Airport (-7.5C) and Orange Airport (-4.5C).
Sydney's 10.2 degrees was the equal coldest so far this year and Canberra hit minus 4.4 degrees for the first time in nine months.
Tomorrow will be another cold morning across New South Wales and the ACT, with widespread frost and fog inland.
- Weatherzone
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/kans ... eat/526371
Kansas crops pummelled by severe blizzard at crucial 'boot stage' for wheat
Clint Jasper, Monday May 8, 2017 - 15:15 EST
ABC image
A Kansas farm blanketed in snow from the May blizzard at a crucial boot period for wheat. - ABC
Farmers in the United States' largest wheat producing state are nervously waiting to assess the damage from a severe blizzard that blanketed Kansas with between 15 and 60 centimetres of snow.
The blizzard was accompanied by wind speeds of between 60 and 100 kilometres an hour.
Kansas produces around 20 per cent of the US' winter wheat crop, and farmers will have to wait several more days before the true extent of the damage is known.
Crops are in the critical 'boot stage', having just emerging from winter dormancy, and Kansas State University agronomist Lucas Haag said the plants are sensitive to sharp drops in temperature.
"While we can handle temperatures around -17 degrees Celsius during the winter, when the wheat's in the boot stage we typically can only handle temperatures around -2C for short amounts of time," he said.