Like clockwork, without fail, the hottest period of the year in Melbourne begins today with the first official serve of the Australian Open. And like clockwork, without fail, the arrival of the tennis has once again coincided with forecasts of extreme heat throughout all of Victoria for the majority of this week. Beautiful, in its own way.
[jwplayer JK4UMjvo]
Victoria is set to cop a pasting from a run of days that will see some parts of the state clock highs in excess of 45 degrees, with Melbourne set to sweat through a run of uncomfortably warm and sticky nights that will last until at least the weekend.
Wednesday is forecast to be the hottest day of the week across inland and northern Victoria, with Mildura, Echuca, Swan Hill, and Wodonga all set to be blasted with tops of 46 degrees which is, I think we can all agree, far too many degrees.
The northern and Mallee regions will top 40 every day this week, possibly into Friday, making it the most extreme run of heat so far this summer. Fire warnings for the region are being pushed into ‘severe’ territory for the whole week, but authorities have stopped short of declaring total fire bans at this stage.
Melbourne, somewhat mercifully, is being spared the brunt of it thanks to some light sea breezes and the absence of the blast furnace-like northerly winds that are associated with the city’s hottest days.
Today and tomorrow the Victorian capital will top out at around 35 degrees, which will be followed by days of 32, 31, and 31, making it 6 consecutive days with temperatures above 30.
But the nights are going to be significantly sweatier in Melbourne, with the minimum temperature overnight forecasting a string of annoyingly hot nights: 18 on Monday night, 19 on Tuesday, Wednesday will drop down to 21, Thursday will see a night of 20 degrees, while Friday night will cop 23. Ah good.
The good/bad news is that a cool change will rock up just in time for the weekend, which is just… so great.
As for the tennis, the players are already having a rough time with the stifling conditions. So much so that Novak Djokovic broke into spontaneous dance upon encountering a common garden sprinkler.
Post training, thank you dear sprinklers 😅😂🤣🚴♂️🚿 #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/r9hN6yNYcI
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 13, 2019
The sun rises, the sun sets, the sun tries to eat professional tennis players alive for two weeks in January. Everything is as it should be.
