The freezing night will continue an extraordinary run of subzero temperatures trough July and create a fitting start to the last day of the Bathurst Winter Festival on Sunday.

The mercury has dropped below zero on 11 of the 15 nights in July so far, compared to just four subzero nights for all of July last year.

The average daily minimum for July so far this year has been -2.2 degrees, well below the long-term average July minimum of 0.9 degrees and a world away from last year’s average July minimum of 3.3 degrees.

July has also maintained the region’s long, dry winter with just 3.6mm of rain so far to go with the near-record low of just 3.6mm that fell through all of June.