Victorians woke up with a chill on Monday as a cold winter blast began to hit the state ahead of spring.
The Bureau of Meteorology expects a band of showers to cross the state on Monday, while an Antarctic blast will bring particularly cold temperatures on Tuesday.
A cold front moving across the state is expected to bring freezing temperatures ahead of spring.Credit:Jason South
Meteorologist Phoebe de Wilt said the weather bureau expected temperatures to drop four degrees below average on Tuesday, with snow possible in areas such as Ballarat and the Dandenong Ranges.
“I’m not going to make any promises about this being the last one [before spring], but it is a particularly cold air mass coming behind this cold front,” de Wilt said.
“We are expecting there will be another cold front crossing the state early next week, but at this stage it doesn’t look as cold.”
The maximum temperature in Melbourne on Tuesday is expected to be just 12 degrees, with an overnight low of 5 degrees.
A severe weather warning for damaging winds in alpine regions was also issued for Monday, with gusts up to 100km/h forecast in elevated areas.
A number of flood warnings remain to the east of Melbourne, including for the Yarra River, while a flood watch is also in place for parts of Gippsland, central and north-east Victoria.
“In terms of rainfall amounts, [the coming cold front] doesn’t reach the upper-tier thresholds, but because we have really wet catchments from previous rainfall, we do have a number of flood warnings out,” de Wilt said.
de Wilt said hail could arrive in Melbourne on Monday afternoon, and there was a “very low” chance of thunderstorms in the eastern suburbs.
There will be less rainfall on Tuesday, but the cold blast means snow is expected down to around 500 metres above sea level.
“They are really just hit-and-miss showers, but they will fall as snow if they do happen,” de Wilt said.
However, temperatures are expected to rise by the weekend, when forecasts suggest a top of 20 degrees is on the cards.
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