Melbourne weather: Heatwave continues as wild winds cause flight delays
If you woke up warm and wondering what season we're in, you weren't alone.
A dust storm covered the city this morning. In some parts it was 30 degrees at 5am.
Photo: Paul JeffersThursday morning brought a confusing array of wild weather to the city including wild winds and a dust storm causing flight delays. In some parts, it was 30 degrees at 5am.
The dust storm was reported across Deer Park, Manor Lakes and Laverton and was moving into Footscray on Thursday morning. The State Emergency Service said a dust storm hit Ballarat and Ararat overnight.
Melbourne Airport is reporting 30-minute delays on flights - mainly arrivals - due to the dust storm and strong winds.
Wind gusts of 126km/h had already been recorded at Mount Bulla by 8am.
The unseasonably warm weather shocked residents across Melbourne's suburbs with Scoresby recording a summery 30 degrees at 5am.
It was 27 degrees at 5.30am in the CBD while Laverton and Avalon hit 28 degrees.
Senior forecaster Rod Dickson said the hot autumn conditions were "unprecedented".
"It's extremely, extremely unusual," he said.
"It is a very unusual thing to occur in April."
The erratic weather will continue throughout Thursday with a slight temperature drop to 23 degrees, scattered showers and thunder in the morning clearing to a sunny afternoon top of 28 degrees.
North-westerly winds are to blame for pushing temperatures up and causing the April heatwave which has broken records in the north of the state.
A severe weather warning has been issued for damaging winds across Victoria's north east, alpine country and parts of Gippsland.
A fire weather warning has also been issued for the Northern Country and Northeast Districts.
The unpredictable weather is expected to calm down by the weekend; Saturday and Sunday are both forecast to a reach much more autumnal tops of 19 degrees.
More to come.
- with Anthony Colangelo