Victoria: Hot then cold front - 16th to 19th January 2013

[Geoff]

Phew! Muggy and sticky out there now, what with a lot of cloud cover and very light winds it feels much worse than the official readings are indicating.
Good to see you back posting Mr. Lijnders!

[Rhino]

Geez Karl, your still alive, I was starting to look through the death notices so good to see your still with us . Hot here now after a pleasant morning, was even coolish at 6.30am, but the oven doors been opened now.

Rhino.

[Karl Lijnders]

Thanks guys, I am still here - just.... haha!

It is very warm now across 3/4 of Melbourne. Down along the peninsulas and out in the far SW suburbs, still low to mid 20s but that should change as the inversion lifts in the coming few hours.

Cloud thickening as well so we may fall short of 40C but be left with a blanket for tonight - so not dropping below 35C until after midnight in some spots!

[93ben]

When is Melbourne going to get some exciting weather?! I'm getting sick of this kind of weather where there's no rain/storms!

[Nick Sykes]

Certainly a fair bit of cloud around today, but even so the airmass is very warm and it wont take a lot of sun to get near 40. SW Vic and west central now heating up as the cloud moves on from there. I imagine from 3-6pm temps in Melbourne will really push up to 40C as the hottest air moves in from the NW and the cloud thins. Tonight is going to be very warm with the change not expected in Melbourne until around sunrise tomorrow.

As I type Melb Airport back over 38C.

Nick

[Australis(Shell3155)]

1.30pm Mel Airport 40.4 C

[Karl Lijnders]

When is Melbourne going to get some exciting weather?! I'm getting sick of this kind of weather where there's no rain/storms!

Still another 3 weeks away probably Ben but keeping an eye on proceedings up over the north of the country. Looking a little more likely to see light thundery showers on the change tomorrow morning with middle level moisture moving in.

Up to 41C in some suburbs with cloud so it may spike to 42-43C later! Yikes!

[Nick Sykes]

38.8C so far in the city, so made the 39C forecast easily in the end considering amount of cloud around, could go past 40C if enough clear air over the next 4 hours.

Nick

[mick]

I cant believe how hot it got before the northerly kicked in, some mass of boilng air must have just crept over us. Moorabbin Ap gone 39 very early, and that WS is in a very sympathetic spot.

[jimmyay]

Looks like the cloud is clearing too so we may well breach 40 before long.

[stratospear]

According to the CFA there is an out-of-control fire just North of Pakenham. Could get nasty:
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/warnings-rest ... 54011.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rhys_34]

41C in the city now, looks like the BOM has overestimated the cloud!

[I_Love_Storms]

Looking nasty now 50km hour winds. 42 at melb airport...very bad fire weather

[Australis(Shell3155)]

41 @ Essendon. 4.57pm 44 @ Mildura..
the old Man wont be too happy camped in a Caravan on the Murray River tonight thats for sure..

[Macedonian]

Gawd!, imagine being in a caravan on the Murray today!! brave brave man.
Just on 31C here when i got home this arvo, back down to 29.9C now. Time to go water the dying garden

[Macedonian]

Thanks Robyn x

Great job you and Jake have done over the summer break for me The weather waits for no one!! Thanks for all the hard work.

Great to see conditions still under the lid of an inversion, quite cool. Basically above about 700m it is dry, hot and the northerly wind is quite fresh. Underneath 700m it is still coolish, sunny and light winds. This has put a real stop to nasty fire weather starting early. But we are far from out of the woods.

Temps should start to spike over the next hour or two from the west and a 40C temp by 6pm is likely for the Melbourne area. If we manage to get under that temp today then we have dodged another big bullet!

Karl, i was out watering early this morning and it was really warm(for MM anyhow) then when i went down the mountain to work it was so much cooler at 450m than it was up here at 870m. Not often that that happens, it was really noticable.

[nafets]

Reached a maximum of 41.1c today, little less than the airport and essendon.

[Australis(Shell3155)]

WS pointng to Rain....... lets all do the Dance..

[occluded]

Welcome back Karl.

Got to 39.4 here today, although it nudged 40.6 at Viewbank this afternoon.

Rain has all but evaporated from the forecasts, of course. WZ outlook and OCF not interested, even GFS has lost interest!

The Almanac section on WZ for Viewbank tells a story:

January rainfall
wettest this month: 1.2mm 9th
total this month: 1.2mm 1 day(s)
long-term average: 43.8mm 9.5 day(s)
wettest on record: 108.8mm 2011
driest on record: 0.8mm 2009

So not quite the driest on record (since 2000) but not far off it.

[Rhino]

Was hot again today here, obviously, 40-41C and actually got a bit windier than I thought it would at times. Can't wait for the isolated showers and storms tommorow morning might actually get a glimpse of something that resembles a rain bearing cloud, rare as hens teeth apparently.

Rhino.