Melbourne swelters through hottest day in nearly a year
Relief is on the way for Melburnians after the city sweltered through its hottest day since last January, with a cool change expected to hit on Tuesday.
Victoria
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Melbourne sweltered through its hottest day in close to 12 months on Monday before a cool change was set to deliver welcome relief from the heat.
The hottest parts of Victoria were Warracknabeal Airport and Longerenong in the Wimmera where the temperature climbed to 39 degrees.
In the city, the Olympic Park weather station recorded a top of 36.7C at 3.21pm — the hottest day since January 31 last year when the temperature reached 42.9C.
Parts of Footscray, Maribyrnong, Seddon were left to endure the heat with no power for most of the day due to an outage.
The blast of extreme heat created a heightened fire risk, with a total fire ban in place for the day in parts of the state’s north and northwest.
Two grass fires were burning out of control near the Calder Freeway in Taylors Lakes, in Melbourne’s north, on Monday afternoon.
One was started by a car fire in a paddock.
Residents who live next to the burning grassland were advised to walk at least two streets back from the fires.
People in Calder Park, Plumpton, Hillside, Sydenham, Sydenham Park, Keilor North, Taylors Hill, Taylors Lakes, Keilor Lodge, Delahey, and Diggers Rest were urged to monitor conditions and be ready to act.
Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said the scorching heat served as a reminder for people to have fire plans in place.
“Critically, you’ve got to know when to put the plan into action,” he said.
“If you’re waiting until you see the smoke you’ve left it far, far too late.”
Mr Crisp urged people to check in on neighbours, relatives and friends who may be struggling in the heat.
Heatwave conditions were expected to continue in the state’s north on Tuesday, while Melbourne’s temperature was due to drop to a relatively mild 22C with the chance of showers and thunder.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster senior forecaster Chris Arvier said the heat would return on Wednesday, with the city jumping up to 33C.
“Given we’ve had a few chilly days to start 2021 this it is a bit of a shock to the system for people,” he said.
He said the hot air was dragged down across Victoria from Central Australia.
From Thursday onwards, Melbourne was due to revert to mild conditions, he said.
“Really the end of this heatwave is Wednesday. We’ll have a number of days of cloudy weather in Melbourne, with temperatures in the low 20s.”
People flocked to beaches and rivers as authorities warned people to be safe by the water.
Victoria had it worst six months for drownings on record, with 35 deaths between July 1, 2020 and December 28.
Life Saving Victoria said: “If you’re enjoying some time at the beach or around Victoria’s waterways, don’t forget to stay safe, swim between the red and yellow flags, closely supervise children, and download the BeachSafe App.”
Temperatures were tipped to reach a sweltering 40C in Horsham, 38C in Geelong, 35C on the Mornington Peninsula, 35C in Warrnambool and 33C at Lakes Entrance.
New figures revealed the festive season was unusually cool in Melbourne.
Between December 25 and January 9, Melbourne recorded an average temperature of just 23.8C, compared to 26.2C over the same period last year.
It was the first time the mean temperature had dropped below 26C in five years.
Along with lower temperatures, Melbourne also got more rain than usual.
The average rainfall of 1.9mm for the 16-day Christmas and new year period was up from 0.9mm and 0.3mm in 2019/2020 and 2018/2019.
The level of sun exposure was also unusually low over the 16-day stretch.
The milder conditions coincide with the La Nina climate driver that is impacting Australia’s weather.
“(La Nina) has certainly been a contributing factor, for sure. With it, you generally get cooler and less extreme conditions in terms of heat,” Mr Panuccio said.
The Bureau has predicted that La Nina has likely reached its peak and is expected to ease over the coming weeks.
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