Did your morning commute feel extra icy yesterday? Did you spend the entire day huddling around the heater? Well, you weren’t alone – Melbourne just experienced its coldest day in five years, with a wintery blast hitting the city.
A blanket of heavy cloud cover and a haze of drizzle kept the mercury low, with the city reaching a maximum temperature of just 10.1 degrees Celsius in the early afternoon – that’s four degrees below average for this time of the year. But the chill factor could’ve been much worse if the wind had picked up. Thankfully, calm wind conditions and some slight humidity (preventing the air from developing that icy, dry chill) kept us from feeling even colder. This current winter snap is the result of a cloud band crossing the country that’s blocking the sun and trapping cold air near the surface.
And it wasn’t just Melbourne that needed a few extra layers – Ballarat only reached a top of nine degrees Celsius, while Geelong managed to hit 11 degrees Celsius.
Conditions are set to improve slightly over the weekend, with a few showers and maximum temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius on Saturday and 14 degrees Celsius on Sunday. Besides, weather forecasters have predicted this winter is on track to be the warmest on record – so fingers crossed we’ve seen the worst of the icy conditions. Now, how many more months of winter are left?
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