Hands up if you were late to work this morning because you needed to chisel ice off your car’s windscreen? Yep, us too. In case that wasn’t a dead giveaway, it was pretty damn fresh this am – in fact, it was Melbourne’s coldest morning in two years. And this is after the city shivered through its chilliest day in more than five years just two weeks ago.
Melburnians woke up to freezing conditions, with Olympic Park recording a temperature of just one degree at 7.29am. It was even chillier in the ‘burbs, with Frankston hitting 0.5 degrees and Melbourne Airport only reaching -0.9 degrees. And spare a thought for our friends living in regional Victoria; the temperature in locations like Ballarat, Rutherglen, Wangaratta and the Latrobe Valley was below minus two degrees. Taking the icy crown was Mount Hotham, which only managed -5.2 degrees.
The winter blast can be blamed on a combination of cold air mass, light winds, clear skies and a strengthening high pressure system hovering over southern Australia.
And in bad news for those who struggle to get out of bed when the mercury drops, the cold snap looks like it will continue – Melbourne is set to experience a week-long run of chilly mornings, with temperatures peaking no higher than five degrees. If this actually eventuates, it will be the coldest week since June 2013.
“Clear skies and light winds [have allowed] the temperature to drop right down each morning,” said Helen Reid, a meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology. “The rest of the week will continue to be dominated by the high pressure system, so more frosty mornings are expected.”
So don’t be deceived by these blue sky conditions – you’re going to want to keep your puffer jacket, gloves and beanie in close reach over the next few days. Stay warm out there, folks!
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