FOR a brief moment yesterday, usually mild-to-temperate Warrnambool was the hottest location in Victoria.
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The south-west’s largest city is noted for meteorological conditions two to six degrees cooler than the state average but mid-afternoon yesterday Warrnambool thermometers outdid any other Victorian weather station.
Warrnambool’s peak temperature yesterday was 41.3 degrees at 2.30pm with other centres including Port Fairy, Portland, Hamilton and Mortlake all pushing past 40 degrees.
But a cool change mid-afternoon ended the brief spell of searing heat with the mercury dropping more than 12 degrees in 20 minutes at Port Fairy following a northwesterly wind turning into a southwesterly gust.
Bureau of Metereology forecaster Peter Newham said south-west temperatures would alternate between moderate sunny weather in the low to mid 20s punctuated by bursts of extreme heat from strong northerly gusts.
He said the pattern would play out for the next fortnight at least.
“A large section of inland Australia is experiencing heatwave conditions and southern Victoria is right on the edge of this weather pattern,” Mr Newham said.
“Mildura will experience eight days over 40 degrees but coastal regions including Portland, Warrnambool and so on will have a cool change in between before a wind change to the north increases temperatures again heading towards the weekend.
“Beyond the next 10 to 14 days, we’ll probably see a few more warm days but probably not as hot as the next seven days.”
Most south-west locations endured temperatures above 40 degrees yesterday except for the seawinds-exposed Cape Nelson weather station.
Coastal locations reached a heat peak before 3pm while inland towns including Mortlake and Camperdown baked later in the day with a cool change failing to materialise until early evening.