Melbourne Has Been Sweating Through Its Hottest Day in Five Years
The mercury hit 42.6 in Melbourne — and more than 46 degrees in regional areas.
Feeling warm, Melbourne? There's a very good reason for that. Seeing in 2019 with a scorcher, the city has been sweltering through quite the toasty day — the hottest in five years, in fact.
As predicted earlier this week, the mercury soared past 42 degrees on Friday, January 4, hitting 42.6 in Melbourne, 45.8 at Avalon and 43.8 in Moorabbin. That's more than 16 degrees above Melbourne's average top January temperature according to Weatherzone, although it's still lower than the city's highest recorded January maximum of 45.6 degrees back in 1939.
Extra scorching temperatures also blazed across the rest of the state — with highs of over 46 degrees experienced around Mildura, Swan Hill and Walpeup.
The particularly hot spell comes after several similarly baking days last month, exceeding the 38-degree maximum experienced in Melbourne's brief early-December heatwave. And, it tops the city's efforts post-Christmas, when the mercury climbed to 37.4 degrees on December 27.
Thankfully, the scorching summer blast is set to be short-lived. BOM expects a gusty southwest change to arrive late on Friday, heralding a return to mid-20s temps. In fact, the mercury is currently dropping around the state, including a 12-degree dip across a period of 10 minutes in Geelong.
Melbourne's Saturday forecast is a considerably mild 21 degrees, with temps set to stay below 27 until Thursday, January 10.
Via Weatherzone. Image: udeyismail via Flickr.
