By Ashleigh McMillan
Melbourne sweated through its hottest day of the summer, and firefighters in Victoria’s north-west were on high alert due to sweltering temperatures of more than 40 degrees and windy conditions.
The city’s temperature hit a maximum of 37.5 degrees late on Sunday afternoon, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, before temperatures started to drop just before sunset.
Beachgoers in Frankston soak up the weekend’s hot conditions.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Sunday’s scorcher beat this summer’s previous high in the city of 34.2 degrees, recorded at Laverton, in Melbourne’s south-west, on December 8.
The last time the inner-city hit more than 38 degrees was on February 17 last year, when a reading of 40.5 degrees was recorded at Olympic Park, near the CBD.
The hottest regional temperatures on Sunday were along the state’s northern border, with Mildura reaching 41 degrees and Cobram reaching 39.5.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Bri Macpherson said the cool change wouldn’t move through Melbourne until 8pm, while areas along the Murray River, such as Echuca and Wodonga, would be waiting until Monday for some relief.
There was a low-level heatwave warning for much for the state’s north-east.
“Northerly winds are dragging some hot air from Australia down over Victoria today ... our maximum temperatures may not hit their peak until late afternoon or early evening in many places,” Macpherson said.
“[The cool change] will arrive in the city maybe about 8pm. The other interesting thing is that the cool change will stall and just kind of hang around, and doesn’t really move very far in the north until tomorrow.”
It was forecast to remain in the late 20s over Sunday night before dropping to a low of 19 degrees at 7am Monday, giving way to milder conditions this week. The city is forecast to reach of top of 22 degrees on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan said on Saturday that residents in the north-west needed to be alert due to the elevated risk of bushfires.
A total fire ban is in force in the Wimmera and Mallee regions of north-west Victoria on Sunday, due to extreme fire danger risk.
“We’re expecting north-west to north-easterly winds around 25 to 40km/h, and a south-westerly wind change in the afternoon,” Heffernan said.
“The wind change will make it challenging for firefighters on a fire ground.”
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