Reason behind bizarre bayside fog

While many Victorians enjoyed a sunny Sunday, residents in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs woke up to a blanket of thick fog.

A blanket of thick fog rolled in over Port Phillip Bay on Sunday afternoon to completely engulf many of Melbourne’s bayside suburbs. Picture: Chelsea SES

A blanket of thick fog rolled in over Port Phillip Bay on Sunday to completely engulf many of Melbourne’s bayside suburbs.

You could be forgiven for thinking the pictures posted to social media of Chelsea Beach were taken on a cold winter’s morning, with most Melburnians enjoying their Sunday under bright blue skies.

The sunshine basically disappeared in Chelsea and its neighbouring suburbs in the early afternoon, with the SES Chelsea Unit describing it as a “spectacular” event.

“Depending on where you are in our area, you are either bathed in sunshine, or if you are closer to the beach, you may well be disappearing into a thick sea mist,” a Facebook post read.

A blanket of thick fog rolled in over Port Phillip Bay. Picture: Chelsea SES

Visibility was low. Picture: Chelsea SES

“This is not something I’ve seen happen, this late in the day, but it certainly is spectacular.

“Heading towards Chelsea from Aspendale Gardens, you see blue skies, and then a line of dark grey, but the closer to the coast you get, the thicker the mist gets, until on the beach itself, visibility is very low.

“People walking along the beach started in sunshine, and suddenly were surrounded by thick fog.

“We are hearing reports that this weather phenomenon goes all the way to the city, yet another weird weather thing to add to Melbourne’s list I guess.”

Drivers struggled to see through the fog. Picture: Chelsea SES

Christie Johnson from the Bureau of Meteorology said the “fairly long-lasting fog” formed a large bank across the state’s south, not only over Port Phillip Bay.

“We had fog develop right across southern Victoria this morning,” she said.

“We’ve had a lot of rainfall recently. There’s moisture in the environment, so we can get that fog forming when we have the light winds and clear skies.

“As the ground heats up, the fog burns off and it definitely burnt off over the land faster than it burnt off over the water.”

Weird whiteout stuff going on bayside in Melbourne. Anyone know what’s happening? pic.twitter.com/ghQxDgUGOE

— Emily Benammar (@EmilyBenammar) October 2, 2022

However, Ms Johnson said daylight saving time also offered an explanation as to why the fog took Melburnians by surprise.

“The fog cleared up over the land by 10am but it hung on over the bay until 1.30pm, but of course that’s only 12.30pm solar time,” she said.

“It probably felt like it was lingering longer than it would normally because of the fact that we’ve just suddenly jumped into daylight saving time.”

Chelsea Beach was hit with the fog. Picture: Chelsea SES

The fog cleared in the afternoon. Picture: Chelsea SES

It comes as every Australian state is expected to be hit in a forecasted week of storms, with two separate rain bands to cover the country.

Melbourne will be spared but Victoria’s north will bear the brunt of the storms, as a low pressure system moves towards Australia’s east coast from the west.

Matthew Thomas from the Bureau of Meteorology said residents in Victoria’s west could expect 5-10mm of rainfall on Tuesday.

“It’s a fairly unstable atmosphere, so we could well see some thunderstorms with that system as it pushes in,” Mr Thomas said.

A further 15-30mm of rainfall is expected to drench Victoria’s north and northwest on Wednesday, according to Mr Thomas.

“But an isolated 40-50mm could be possible with thunderstorms.”

Mr Thomas said the Loddon River and Avoca River were at risk of minor flooding, adding that the Wimmera, Mallee and Goldfields regions were experiencing “saturated catchments”.

“Unfortunately, those areas are the areas which have seen the most rainfall so far and probably have the wettest soil.”