Melbourne breaks weather record with warmest June night – but winter is returning

Melburnians could be forgiven for forgetting it’s the first month of winter after “record-breaking warmth” across the city this week.

Temperatures hovered just below 20 degrees well after midnight early on Thursday morning, with an overnight low of 16.4 degrees recorded at the Olympic Park weather station just before 10pm on Wednesday.

That was slightly higher than the 16.2 degrees recorded at 9.08am on Wednesday, which was the lowest temperature of the entire 24-hour period.

As the Bureau of Meteorology records temperatures in 24-hour blocks from 9am to 9am, that 16.2 degree minimum made the following 24-hour period the warmest June night on record.

Senior Meteorologist David Crock from the weather bureau said the overnight temperature was akin to a regular summer night in Melbourne.

“The start to winter overall has been reasonably warm,” he said. “We had record-breaking warmth, pretty much right across the metro area.”

Tuesday’s minimum temperature was 14.7 degrees at 3.30am, slightly warmer than Monday’s low of 11.1 degrees at 11pm, which then rose to 16 degrees at 2am on Tuesday.

“We had a pretty warm stretch at the end of last week as well, but in terms of the forecast for the next few days, we will see more typical conditions for this time of year,” Crock said.

“Much cooler air will come in, and you’ll see on the forecast that the top temperatures are 14 degrees or so, with much cooler nights.

“That’s pretty typical for June. It’ll feel quite cold, having been so warm this week.”

Thursday is expected to reach a high of 18 degrees soon after midday, leading into a cooler weekend with a maximum of 14 degrees forecast for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

There is a current warning in place for strong winds across the Port Phillip, West Coast, Central Coast and East Gippsland Coast areas.

Crock said there is some rain on the way, with heavy downfalls in other states starting to make their way across the western parts of Victoria.

“We’re seeing some of the tail-end impacts of that across Victoria this morning, where there’s plenty of rain on the radar,” he said.

“There are more showers and some thunderstorms potentially to come this afternoon, and then further showers over the next few days.”

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