The coldest portion of Australia is the Australian Alps situated in North-eastern Victoria and South-eastern New South Wales, where the mean shade temperatures range from 65°, in January, to 40° Fah., in July. During exceptionally dry summers the temperatures in the interior reach, and occasionally exceed, 120°, and the same areas during the winter months are subject to ground frosts.
Taking Australia as a whole, the extremes of temperature annually, seasonally, and daily are less than those experienced in any of the other continents, and the mean temperatures prevailing are generally lower than for corresponding latitudes in the other continental land areas of the Globe. These features are due mainly to insularity and the comparative absence of physiographical extremes.
The following table gives the monthly, seasonal, and annual means and extremes of temperature for the Australian capitals:—
