IDV10300
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
Victoria
Notes on the Weather
Issued at 4:37 pm EST on Friday 1 August 2014.
Recent Events
A band of rain associated with a cold front crossed Victoria on Thursday. The
rain cleared eastern Victoria overnight. In the 24 hours to 9am today, most
rainfall totals in the north were less than 8mm, although slightly higher
towards the ranges. In the south, falls of 10 to 20mm were common over Western,
Central and West Gippsland districts. In East Gippsland falls of under 10mm
were recorded. The highest rainfall total recorded in this period was 27mm at
Bunyip River, 26mm at Donna Buang and Mt Sabine.
Minimum temperatures throughout Victoria were below the July average by 1 to 4
degrees with the lowest minimum being minus 7 degrees at Mt Hotham and Falls
Creek. Away from the alps, the lowest minimum was 1 degree at Eildon, Gelantipy
and Combienbar.
Today was a very cold day with fresh westerly winds shifting squally southwest
to southerly over western and central areas of the State as another cold front
move through the area.
Some of the strongest wind gusts for Thursday were Hogan Island 144 km/h (78
kts), Mt Hotham 139 km/h (75 kts) and Wilsons Promontory 135km/h (73 kts).
Winds gusts for Friday were less than Thursday with the highest gusts being
Wilsons Promontory 124 km/h (67 kts), Hogan Island 118 km/h (64 kts) and Cape
Nelson 94 km/h (51 kts).
Today was mostly cloudy with scattered showers, mainly in the south. Some
thunderstorms were recorded over western and central Victoris during the day.
Snow showers and small hail was reported at many locations in southern
Victoria, mainly above 350 metres. Some of these locations were Ballarat, Mt
Dandenong, Mt Macedon, Kyneton, Woodend, Creswick, Lavers Hill, Beech Forest
(Otways) and Avoca. The highest rainfall totals recorded in the 7 hours to 4pm
were 16mm at Wilsons Promontory, 12mm at Donna Buang, 10mm at Harris Lane, 8mm
at Hogan Island, Archerton and Bright.
Maximum temperatures were generally 4 to 9 degrees below the average and mostly
ranged between 7 and 12 degrees. The highest maximum was 16 degrees at Gabo
Island. In contrast the maximum was only minus 6 degrees at Mt Hotham. Also
Ballarat only recorded a maximum of 4 degrees, Eildon only 3 degrees and
Hunters Hill zero.
Melbourne's temperature ranged from 6.9 degrees at 4:42am to a maximum of 10.3
degrees at 10:52am. This was the coldest day in Melbourne for the year and the
coldest since 20th July 2013 when the maximum was 9.7 degrees. Rainfall
recorded in the 24 hours to 9am Friday was 6.6mm in the city gauge. In the
subsequent 7 hours, a further 2mm was reported.
Strongest wind gusts in the metro area today included 87km/h (47 kts)at Avalon
and Airey's Inlet and 85km/h (46 kts) at St Kilda.
Explanatory Notes
An intense low pressure system just southeast of Tasmania will move rapidly
east tonight and a cold trough over Victoria will also move out over the Tasman
Sea. A high pressure system moving over Bight waters will move east to reach
northern Victoria later on Saturday then it will remain almost stationary over
the State until Tuesday.
