Relief has arrived for hot and bothered Melbourne after a trio of days above 37°C. Not since February 2014 had Melbourne endured a three-day sequence of days that were so hot.

After Sunday peaked at 39.3°C (with temps above 40 in numerous suburbs), Monday reached 37.8°C while the mercury peaked this Tuesday at 37.3°C.

This Tuesday has been frustrating for Melburnians. While those magical words "cool change" were in the forecast, there was no sign of the southwesterly until mid-afternoon, as it took its own good time to sweep along the Victorian coastline.

• Warrnambool had already topped 26°C by 10am, then swiftly lost several degrees as the cool change arrived and was sitting just above 20°C at midday.
• Geelong reached its Tuesday high of 36.4°C just before 1pm but was down below 25°C by 2:30pm.
• Avalon reached its Tuesday high of 35.7°C at 1:30pm, then rapidly shed 10 degrees to be 25.7°C at 2:30pm.
• Then at last, the change hit the Melbourne CBD with the mercury tumbling to 27.2°C by 3pm – more than 10 degrees below today’s maximum which came just an hour earlier.
• By 4pm, Melbourne had dropped to 22.4°C. Phew!

This is not one of those cool changes that is vigorously sweeping northwards and dropping temperatures across Victoria.

Image: The synoptic chart shows a cold front well south of the mainland which is providing an influx of southerly winds that is cooling the Vic coastline but not extending far beyond.

For example, while Warrnambool was dipping below 21°C at 2:30pm, Horsham (about 230km north) was edging over 38°C soon afterwards, while Mildura (another 300km north) was 41°C.

The extreme heat will diminish slightly in Victoria's north on Wednesday but return quickly by Thursday, with another run of maximums in the high 30s.

For Melbourne and southern Victoria, top temps should remain in the 20s until Sunday, when the weather starts to warm up again, with and other run of sizzling days a possibility by midweek.