Temperatures plummeted by about 10 degrees at Olympic Park as a gusty southerly wind hit the city after 2pm.
Temperatures plummeted by about 10 degrees at Olympic Park as a gusty southerly wind hit the city after 2pm.
By Lachlan Abbott and Alexander Darling
Updated February 4, 2025 — 11.55amfirst published at 7.08am
A cool change is heading for Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon after another hot night, but not before temperatures climb above 35 degrees again and keep Victorian firefighters on alert.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts a maximum of 36 in the city on Tuesday after temperatures stayed above 24 degrees overnight.
By 10am, the mercury was already edging 30 degrees across most parts of the city.
Weather bureau forecaster Lincoln Trainor said Melbourne could expect a drop of 10 degrees after 2pm, as a gusty southerly wind arrives. The bureau also expects temperatures across the city to remain below 17 degrees on Tuesday night.
Before the cool change, a watch-and-act warning was issued for Beveridge, Eden Park, Whittlesea, Woodstock and Yan Yean in Melbourne’s north as a grassfire flared up near Grants Road, Woodstock just after midday.
Northern Victoria will continue to experience a low-intensity heatwave until at least Thursday, and the bureau said the stretch might continue into the weekend.
In Mildura, temperatures are forecast to remain in the mid to high 30s until at least Monday. On Tuesday, the regional city is forecast to reach a top of 41 degrees. Elsewhere, Shepparton will likely peak at 38 degrees and Bendigo is expected to reach 37 degrees.
In a press conference on Monday, meteorologist Michael Efron warned that thunderstorms could also develop across the state on Tuesday.
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“We are looking at the showers and storms again redeveloping over inland parts, in particular, throughout Tuesday. We could see heavy rain, large hail and damaging winds,” he said.
Overnight there were 146,000 lightning strikes across Victoria, with about 19,000 of them hitting the ground.
The State Emergency Service said it had responded to more than 1100 calls for assistance due to building damage and fallen trees across Victoria since 9am on Sunday. At 10am on Tuesday, SES volunteers were responding to 40 incidents, largely in Phillip Island and on the Bellarine Peninsula.
At least 1700 properties statewide remained without electricity as energy companies continued repairing faults.
Emergency alert downgraded in Grampians as another fire flares
Bushfire warnings in Victoria’s west remained largely unchanged on Tuesday morning, until the lone emergency warning in the Grampians was downgraded just after 10am.
Mirranatwa, a small farming hamlet nestled between two ridges at the southern end of the national park, is now under a watch-and-act warning as the Victoria Range fire burns out of control.
“The spread of the bushfire has slowed for now, but the situation can change at any time,” the warning said.
A fresh fire flared on Tuesday morning in Lerderderg State Park, north-west of Melbourne near Gisborne. This is a new fire from the one that briefly reached evacuation level north of the nearby town of Bullengarook in December.
Meanwhile, near the South Australian border, the Little Desert fire remained under a watch-and-act alert on Tuesday morning, a day after three NSW firefighters narrowly escaped the fire as it engulfed their vehicle.
The towns of Goroke, Kaniva, Lawloit, Miram South and Peronne remain in the bushfire warning zone.
“There will be a wind change late during the morning which may push the fire in a north-north-easterly direction, increasing the fire risk,” said the updated alert issued at 7.06am.
Much of the Little Desert National Park is in the West Wimmera Shire, which has endured bushfire emergencies in two of the past three years.
Mayor Tim Meyer said while his community was used to big fires, they could still use support.
“We just need the resources [to fight fires], that’s the main thing, and air support is a big part of that. Any improvements or further developments for our airports across the shire are appreciated,” he said.
Meyer said road closures in the area affected the day-to-day life for residents, such as in Kaniva, where the pharmacy was unable to get medication for several days.
On Tuesday, Premier Jacinta Allan said financial support was already available to fire-affected Grampians communities.
“We are still very much in an emergency phase,” she said.
“We will continue to support the work of our emergency services and the volunteers who have been working for weeks now keeping these communities safe … we will need to continue to work and support and listen to the local community as the fire risk eases, but it hasn’t eased yet.”
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Lachlan Abbott is a reporter at The Age.Connect via email.
Alexander Darling – Alexander began as a Breaking Reporter at The Age in February 2025. He has spent time at the ABC in Ballarat, Horsham, News Breakfast, as a reporter at the Wimmera Mail-Times and radio newsreader at Triple M’s NSW radio stations.Connect via email.
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