In what comes as a surprise to almost no one, it is (still) cold in Melbourne. 

After a generally clear and calm night the temperature fell to a minimum of 2.2 degrees at 7:30am. A rogue bank of fog rolled in soon after dawn, blocking out the sun and delaying the usual start of daytime heating. At 9am, it was still only 3 degrees in Melbourne.

Citizens Park in Richmond this morning (photo: author)

While it wasn’t a classic pea souper fog, visibility was still only about 500 metres. As the photo above shows, the housing commission buildings in the background aren’t clearly visible against the background sky and they’re located about 500-1000 metres from the oval. If the visibility were 100 metres or less, you wouldn’t be able to make out the trees on the other side of the oval.

Himawari satellite image loop from this morning

Satellite imagery shows that while most of the Melbourne metropolitan area was under clear skies with temperatures around 10 degrees, the city and eastern suburbs were blanketed in a layer of fog and low cloud which rolled in from the Yarra Valley. Melbourne, Viewbank and Coldstream were sitting on only 4 degrees at 10am. 

Melbournians may have noticed that it has been particularly chilly for over a week now. The mercury hasn’t climbed above 15 degrees since the 11th of June when it was a relatively balmy 16.8 degrees. Now, if today fails to exceed the forecast maximum of 15, it will be the 11th consecutive day below 15. This isn’t unusual for Melbourne; you only have to look back to 2022 when there was a period of 19 days in a row below 15 degrees during May and June. 

As for the outlook, it’s not good news I’m afraid. We’ve only just passed the winter solstice and July is climatologically Melbourne’s coldest month with an average maximum temperature of 14.5 degrees (using the most recent 1991-2020 data). So turn up the electric blanket, we’ve still got a long way to go.