KEEP yourself rugged up if you're in Brisbane – the mercury just plummeted below 7C in the CBD and it’s likely to drop further this morning.

The southeast is freezing this morning following its coldest day in 11 years on Thursday – when the maximum daytime temperature struggled to warm up at 12.5C.

Weather Channel forecaster Tom Saunders said Brisbane’s outdoor temperature had plunged to 6.9C at 6am and was expected to go even lower until sunrise.

Amberley is near-freezing at 1.8C while the temperature at the Brisbane airport is a frosty 5.7C.

In Toowoomba and Oakey the mercury dropped to just below 0C, while Kingaroy recorded 0.6C and Charleville a chilly minus-3C.

Mr Saunders said frost was likely in areas to the west of Brisbane, where the temperature got below 2C.

"There is frost, even around Ipswich and there could be some frost in the far western parts of Brisbane, this morning, too," he said.

"After such a cold day yesterday and with skies clearing overnight, any heat has escaped and that’s why it was such a cold night."

Mr Saunders said the predicted daytime top today was 16C, although there would be less cloud cover than yesterday.

He said it was still an unusual daytime high for Brisbane and 6C below average.

"It’s pretty unusual," he said. "We don’t get many days that stay at 12.5C in June."


The average for this time of year is 20.9C, putting Thursday’s 12.6C maximum 8C below average.

The June record, which is also the seasonal low, is 11.3C.

The Weather Bureau expects Friday to be more like 15C, due to the chance of some sunshine peeking through.

Forecaster Greg Browning said the cold snap was caused by a substantial low level layer of cold air pushed up from south of the continent.

"Above this very cold airflow, we have dense cloud cover," Mr Browning said. "This meant sunshine was not getting through to warm up the atmosphere."

There were no reports of sleet or snow in the elevated border regions although conditions were cold enough.

At 2pm, the city was just 12.2C. This put Brisbane's apparent temperature - what you 'feel' with things such as wind chill and a lack of sunshine factored in - at just 8.9C.

That made it colder than Melbourne, which made 15.3C.

Mr Browning said the cold conditions extended just north of Mackay, with temperatures well below average right along the coast and into the interior.

Applethorpe on the Granite Belt had the coldest temperature in Queensland, with 6C at 3pm and Toowoomba to the east made just 6.7C.

The good news is that the bureau has slightly wound back predictions of up to 150mm of rain on the weekend and early next week.

Mr Browning said patchy rain would still occur in the south of the state, with central Queensland to get the heaviest, perhaps about 50mm.

Cloudy and rainy conditions would continue over most of the eastern half of the state next week, with moderate to heavy falls about the central coast and inland.

There remains the potential for heavier rain extending into the south of the state on Wednesday.