By Roy Ward
Melbourne has experienced its hottest April day since 2014 as the temperature hit 31 degrees on Sunday.
The CBD reached 31.8 degrees while weather stations at Avalon and Point Cook got to highs of 33.5 degrees.
Walkers enjoy the warm weather – and autumn leaves – at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens.Credit: Luis Ascui
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Simon Timcke said Melbourne hadn’t experienced an April day this hot since April 1, 2014, and finding a day this hot, this late in April was rare.
“It’s the hottest day we have had for a while,” Timcke said on Sunday.
“We’ve got to 31.8 degrees, and that’s our hottest April day since April 1, 2014, so 11 years since we’ve seen a day as hot as this in April and that day was the first of the month, to find a day this hot so late in April takes a bit of effort, and we have to go further back in the records.
“We had 32.5 degrees on April 14, 2004, and once we get past mid-April, days this hot become a lot less common.
“We got to 33.8 degrees on April 13, 1985, and we got to 34.4 degrees on April 17 back in 1922.
“It’s not impossible to get days this hot late in April but it’s not very often.”
The mercury should come down on Monday to a top of 23 degrees with the possibility of a few showers in the morning.
But Timcke said the weather was forecast to warm up again later in the week as Easter begins.
“We get another high that moves in over the Tasman Sea, so the winds go northerly again, and we get a few warmer days towards the end of the week,” Timcke said.
The warm weather brought out large numbers of people on The Tan on Sunday. Credit: Luis Ascui
“It looks like 26 degrees for Tuesday, 29 degrees for Wednesday and Thursday, and then 28 for Friday,
“So we’ve got a few warmer days to finish off the week.”
Timcke said the warm weekend was the result of a hot air mass in the north of Victoria.
“We’ve got a pretty hot air mass over the north of the state, which has been hanging around for a while,” Timcke said.
“That along with the high-pressure system getting out of the Tasman Sea, that’s directed more northerly winds over us and dragged some of that hot air down from the north because we’ve had a pretty good run of pretty hot days over the north of the state for a while now.
“So the northerly has just brought some of that hot air down from the north.”
Firefighters battled a bushfire four kilometres south-west of Daylesford on Sunday afternoon.
Forest Fire Management Victoria said 72 vehicles and 250 firefighters were fighting the fire that burned through more than 96 hectares of land.
A watch and act warning was in place for the communities of Musk Vale, Sailors Falls and Sailors Hill.
Authorities were conducting a planned burn on the Old Tom Track in Hepburn Regional Park on Friday and into the weekend.
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