Victoria shivers through another freezing morning

UPDATE: TEMPERATURES dipped below 0C in parts of Victoria overnight for the second consecutive day.

Fiona Bell walks her dogs at a frosty Princes Park yesterday morning.

UPDATE: FREEZING conditions have caused delays on several Qantas flights at Melbourne Airport this morning, as temperatures dipped below 0C in parts of the state overnight.

The airline reported delays of up to 40 minutes on nine flights at 7.30am due to ice on aircraft wings.

“A number of flights out of Melbourne are experiencing minor delays due to wing icing,” a Qantas spokeswoman said.

“Operations are expected to return to normal shortly.”

Passengers also reported being stuck on Qantas planes as they sat on the tarmac.

“Landed at Melbourne Airport half an hour ago. Still on the plane. Captain reckons it’ll be another 15 minutes. I hate flying,” @_jbdh tweeted at 7.30am.

A freezing low -0.6C was recorded at Melbourne Airport at 6.30am today, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

But the apparent temperature — taking into account wind and humidity — dropped to as low as -5.1C at 3.30am.

Melburnians shivered through a low of 1.9C at 4.42am today.

Bureau forecaster Scott Williams said this morning’s low was not quite as chilly as yesterday’s minimum of 0.6C — the coldest to hit the city since the mercury dipped to 0.3C on the morning of August 4, 1997.

But Mr Williams said it was too early to tell whether today would trump yesterday in terms of the cold stakes, as yesterday’s minimum didn’t register until just after 8am.

The temperature in Melbourne had barely risen to 2.1C by 6am.

“It’s another very cold morning — certainly the two coldest consecutive mornings this year,” Mr Williams said.

“We’ve only had two spells of the temperature being below 2C two days in a row in the last 20 years, so it is significant.”

Melbourne’s suburbs have endured even colder starts this morning — Laverton and Essendon both -1.4C, Scoresby -0.9C and Viewbank -0.5C.

Coldstream in the Yarra Valley had experienced a minimum of -4.5C by 6am, while Ballarat froze through a -4.2C minimum just before 2am. The mercury had slightly risen to -2C in the regional city by 6am.

Mr Williams said today’s morning frost was set to make way for sunny conditions, with a top of 15C due by about 2pm to 3pm.

“It’s not a bad day coming up, if you can rug up this morning,” he said.

“Tomorrow will be a windy day, which means we won’t get another exceptionally cold night tonight.”

A comparatively warm low of 8C and top of 15C is forecast for tomorrow with a windy and slightly wet minimum of 11C and maximum of 15C due on Wednesday.

There’s a slight chance of showers on Thursday and Friday as well, with a maximum of 15C again forecast on both days, followed by a slightly cooler weekend with tops of 13C and 12C expected on Saturday and Sunday respectively.