Melbourne on track for driest start to winter in seven years

Melbourne has likely experienced its driest start to winter in seven years, but a 20-centimetre dump of snow has put smiles on faces in Victoria’s alpine region just in time for the school holidays.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne received 20.6 millimetres of rain across June, up to 9am on Sunday.

Victoria has had the driest June in seven years.

The last time Melbourne recorded such low rainfall totals for the first month of winter was in 2017, when a total of 16.8 millimetres of rain fell at the Olympic Park weather station across the month.

Earlier this year, parts of regional Victoria experienced their driest conditions on record. Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Zhi-Weng Chua told The Age last week that the south-west coast had received the lowest rainfall on record in the nine months to May.

He said western Victoria had also experienced record dry conditions between February and May. At Warrnambool Airport, the bureau recorded 83.6 millimetres of rain during that four-month period, compared to the average of 203.2 millimetres.

Melbourne experienced a soggy end to the month of June, with 6.2 millimetres of rain recorded on Saturday and 3.8 millimetres falling across Sunday up to 2pm.

A cold snap will continue into the first week of July after a dryer-than-usual June.

After a drizzly weekend, there is the chance that more light showers will sprinkle the city on Monday, with a top temperature of 12 degrees expected.

Senior meteorologist Stephanie Miles said daily maximum temperatures across Melbourne would stay between 12 and 14 degrees for the week ahead.

But Melburnians will have to keep piling on the blankets and rug up overnight, with frosty lows of 3 degrees forecast on Tuesday and 2 degrees on Wednesday.

“A high-pressure system south-west of the Bight is directing a cool southerly flow over the city, driving showery conditions on Sunday and Monday, before a relatively more settled and drier remainder of the week,” she said.

In good news for keen skiers, Miles said that 10 to 20 centimetres of snow had been observed across Victoria’s alpine resorts overnight, just in time for the first week of school holidays.

Mount Hotham reported that 20 centimetres of snow had fallen in the 24 hours to midday on Sunday, with an icy high of minus 2 degrees predicted at the ski resort.

Mount Hotham’s head of visitor experience, Andrew Eckersley, said that Sunday had been the busiest day on the mountain this year, with 1088 vehicles entering the resort to lap up the fresh snow.

“We are expecting pretty cold conditions for the week ahead which is fantastic for our snow-making efforts, so the snow guns will be up and firing at every opportunity when weather permits,” he said.

“There’s also a nice amount of sunshine in the forecast, so we’d suggest rugging up and using plenty of SPF 50+!”

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