Relief as cool change arrives in Melbourne after temperature taps 39.2 degrees

The cool change was initially expected to hit Melbourne at 5pm, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) revised its forecast, with the colder air from the south-west hitting the city just before 2pm.

Moorabbin, 15 kilometres south-east of the CBD, dropped 12 degrees in just under an hour when the change arrived at 12.30pm.

BOM duty forecaster Christie Johnson said the cool change had “sped up along the coast”, but was still going to take some time to travel inland.

“Sometimes these changes gather energy from moving over the water, and particularly as they come into Bass Strait,” she said.

“It’s tricky to predict when that’s going to happen. It’s not moving any faster across the inland though, so still on track to arrive when forecast. It will still take a while to get to places like the Yarra Valley.”

Shepparton, in the state’s north, had reached 41.1 degrees by 1.30pm.

Melburnians sweltered through a sticky night, with the temperature only dropping to 24.8 degrees. The temperature at Melbourne Airport did not drop below 28 degrees on Sunday night.

Ms Johnson said that Melbourne was likely going to face the “the hottest day this season so far”, but that would not be the case for northern Victoria, which had already recorded many days over 40 degrees this summer.

“That cool change will move into the south-west of the state ... and move very slowly through western Victoria, arriving in the central districts late afternoon and in Victoria’s east tonight or in the early hours of Tuesday morning,” she said.

Shepparton is expected to hit 43 degrees after 2pm on Monday, but residents will have to wait longer for some relief from the heat, with the cool change not expected until about 9pm.

Towns along the Victoria-NSW border, such as Echuca and Yarrawonga, are forecast to reach 42 degrees by mid-afternoon, and are expected to receive the cool breeze at 6pm.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton urged Victorians to take the hot weather seriously, noting we may not be accustomed to the high temperatures the heatwave is creating.

“Some might think I’m being ‘Captain Obvious’ here, but heat still kills,” he said on Twitter on Monday.

“And yes, hot days happen in summer – but this is the first real flush of extreme heat for some months so our bodies won’t be acclimatised as they might be later on.

“The fact that we saw more deaths from extreme heat in 2009 than from the tragic Black Saturday bushfires should give us all pause. So please check on vulnerable people and do the commonsense things!”

State Response Controller Chris Eagle said late on Sunday that the “next 24 hours is the most significant fire risk Victoria has seen this season”.

“Any bushfires still going when the gusty change comes through will make it challenging and dangerous for firefighters on the ground,” he said.

Country Fire Authority Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said he was expecting significant gusts of 50 to 60km/h, which will “really build those fire dangers” in some parts of Victoria.

As Melburnians began waking up from a sweaty and sleepless night, firefighters were already fighting a vicious blaze about 10 kilometres from the CBD.

Flames up to 10 metres high soared from a rubbish fire at a recycling facility in Brooklyn in Melbourne’s west.

It took 40 firefighters about 40 minutes to get the blaze on Old Geelong Road under control after it started shortly before 6am.

Emergency Management Victoria said smoke from the fire was billowing in a southerly direction, towards Altona North, and those who are sensitive to smoke should close windows and doors and turn off cooling systems.

Victoria has contracted 51 aircraft for this year’s bushfire season, including water-bombing aircraft, air supervision and air intelligence-gathering aircraft.

Despite the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic, emergency services are well prepared for this year’s bushfire season, Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said.

“It’s presented some challenges – we haven’t been able to get out and do the face-to-face briefings that we normally would have done,” he said.

“However, we’ve done that online. We’ve done that in such an effective way that it’s been a lot more flexible for volunteers to actually participate.”

Victorians have been warned to take care around beaches, rivers and pools as they look to beat the heat, after two men died and countless others were dragged out of the water near the Great Ocean Road.

One man died after he was pulled from the water while swimming at Thirteenth Beach in Barwon Heads on Saturday, and another died after his boat capsized off Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road.

More than 42 Victorians have drowned since July last year, seven of them in the past 10 days.

Victorian Fisheries Authority chief executive Travis Dowling said his staff would be patrolling the waterways on Monday with both “overt and covert” surveillance.

“It’s not all about enforcement, but if there’s some enforcement to be had, we have the right staff out there.

“But it’s also about making sure the experience of all boaters and waterway users is enhanced, making sure everyone is having a great time and is safe doing so.”

He said it was vital people wore lifejackets that fitted them, with 75 per cent of drowning victims from boat accidents either not wearing lifejackets or wearing ill-fitting jackets.

Victoria’s brief heatwave comes as some parts of Europe have experienced freezing temperatures. According to Associated Press, temperatures dropped to minus 28 degrees in Poland, where train tracks cracked during country’s the coldest night in 11 years.

With Sumeyya Ilanbey