A taste of spring-like warmth will offer Sydneysiders a reprieve from frigid winter weather early next week after parts of NSW woke to conditions colder than Antarctica on the weekend’s winter solstice.

A high of 22 degrees will arrive on Monday, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts, as a burst of warm air moving east across the continent drives June temperatures 5 degrees above average before the winds of winter return from Tuesday.

Towns across NSW ushered in Saturday’s winter solstice with their coldest morning in years. Canberra recorded a pre-dawn temperature of -7.6 degrees – its coldest June morning in 39 years.

Forbes shivered through a low of -5.5 degrees, the coldest June morning there in 27 years, and Cowra had its coldest dawn in a decade at -3.1 degrees.

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Goulburn and Cooma out-iced Antarctica, hitting respective lows of -10 and -8.6 degrees on Saturday morning and offering residents a taste of what it’s like to wake up within the polar circle: Antarctica’s Davis Station clocked -8.4 degrees at the same time, according to Weatherzone.

The frosty snap was caused by a high-pressure system parked over south-east Australia, keeping a dry and cold air mass over inland NSW.

The winter solstice marks the day of the year with the shortest daylight hours (nine hours and 54 minutes for Sydney) which contributed to the frosty morning.

“We’ve had clear skies, light winds, and at the moment the nights are longest, which means we can really lose heat overnight,” bureau meteorologist Gabrielle Woodhouse said.

While the short daylight hours are a contributing factor to icy mornings, the coldest temperatures of the year typically come a few weeks after the solstice.

Monday’s kinder temperatures will be fanned by north-westerly winds drawing warm air towards the coast before a cold front ushers in a return to wintry weather.

“On Tuesday for Sydney is when we’ll see some showers that will come through, and some fairly strong winds through Tuesday and Wednesday. And because of that, the wind chill factor is going to make things feel much cooler,” Woodhouse said.

“It means during the day it’s going to feel significantly colder than what the temperature is on the forecast.”

The cold front is a significant system that could trigger weather warnings and deliver snow outside the alpine areas, she said.

Dr Vanessa Pirotta, the scientist behind citizen science project Wild Sydney Harbour, made the most of winter sunshine on Saturday and spent the day of the solstice off Bondi watching fur seals and breaching humpbacks.

The east coast is in the thick of whale-watching season as humpbacks venture to the warm waters of the tropics.