THE Far North's cold snap has broken a 113 year record in the Cooktown region north of Cairns and smashed six other records for May.

Palmerville Station’s George Wilson knew he was in for a chilly night but had no idea the mercury would drop to 6.5C early yesterday morning – a temperature 1.3C lower than the coldest May day on record since 1896 on the property southwest of Cooktown.

Records also tumbled at Cooktown, Coen, Cape Flattery, Lockhart River, Musgrave and Coconut Island in the Torres Strait.

In Cairns, the lowest overnight temperature was 13.1C – almost seven degrees below the city’s average minimum for May.

Cairns weather forecaster Alicia Duncanson said cold air moving through from southwest Queensland had also caused early frosts on the Tableland where the Far North’s coldest official temperature was 4.8C at Kairi.

Some Ravenshoe residents recorded an unofficial 3C, and soil temperatures of 0.2C had been recorded at Walkamin, she said.

Forecasters were predicting chilly conditions for the tropics early this morning and say below average temperatures will continue into the start of the working week.

Yesterday’s cold snap broke a 64-year record for May at Cooktown where the mercury plunged to 9.1C overnight. The coldest temperature on record had previously been 10.3C.

At Lockhart River, a 44-year record was broken by a whisker, while in Coen the new record is 9.9C which is 5.1C lower than a chilly May day in 2007.

At Palmerville, Mr Wilson said the homestead’s wood stove was being appreciated and workers were "rolling deep into their swags or beds" for the preview to winter.

The cold snap has been caused by the same pressure system that brought flash flooding and torrential rain to southeast Queensland.

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