Melburnians are in for a chilly end to the week with the mercury set to plummet on Friday to one of our coldest winter days.
This comes after a day of wild and destructive winds around the state on Thursday, which left buildings damaged, thousands of homes without power, trees down, roads closed and train lines blocked.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Phil King said if the temperature failed to go above 11 degrees on Friday, as predicted, it would be chalked up as the coldest day of the year.
“Eleven point three degrees is the lowest we’ve had so far this year, and that was on June 29,” he said.
While winds had dropped since Thursday night, Mr King said another cold front heading towards Melbourne from the Grampians would bring more sordid weather.
“It’s going to be a miserable afternoon with scattered showers, hail and really cold conditions,” he said.
“We could still see wind gusts of up to 90km/h.”
The front was due to hit the city about midday, he said.
Mr King said snow could fall as low as 400 metres, possibly dusting parts of the Grampians, the Otways, Ballarat, Mount Macedon and Mount Dandenong, while Victoria’s alpine region would see blizzards.
At 6.30am on Friday, the temperature in the city was 6 degrees, but felt closer to 2 degrees with wind chill, Mr King said.
Around the state, it was 1.5 degrees in Ballarat and 2 degrees in Ferny Creek.
The Lilydale Line was partly suspended on Friday morning, with buses replacing trains between Mooroolbark and Lilydale in both directions due to problems with overhead power equipment.
The State Emergency Service received 1750 calls for assistance on Thursday, mostly in Melbourne’s bayside and eastern suburbs and around the Latrobe Valley.
