By TOM GANNON
FOLLOWING less than ideal weather conditions last week, Latrobe Valley residents will be treated to a taste of summer with tomorrow’s forecast predicting the highest temperature since May.
However, this warm weather won’t stay for long with temperatures expected to plummet to 14 by Saturday.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) if tomorrow’s temperature does reach the expected 27 degrees, it will beat out the last highest temperature of 25.4 degrees on May 2.
BOM’s duty forecaster Dean Narramore pinpointed the factors behind the sharp rise in warmth.
“Basically that’s just due to a really strong cold front moving up to central Australia through South Australia and ahead of that we get these northerly winds that will last for a few days,” he said.
“That’s going to drag the really warm air across central Australia finally down into south-eastern Australia and that’s going to lead to a couple of days of warm and sunny conditions through much of Victoria and the Latrobe Valley.”
The Bureau’s latest seasonal outlooks predicts above average rainfall for people living in the east of the country as well cooler days and warmer nights.
However, predictions for the Latrobe Valley and parts of Gippsland suggest we will not see much more rain than usual, continuing the trend of on average 200mm of rain across spring.
“It’s looking pretty wet for most of east and inland Australia. In the Latrobe Valley and West/South Gippsland there’s probably less of a chance of well above average rainfall for the season of spring,” Mr Narramore said.
“We are mostly looking at slightly above average rainfall for that three month period.
“There will be long dry breaks as well, it won’t be raining all the time and we could have a couple of weeks with no rainfall and then get a big burst of rain with the weather system moving through.”
Temperatures are also tipped to be only slightly warmer than average with some really cold and really hot days expected.
For the antihistamine dependant, hay fever sufferers, this spring could be a struggle with a wet winter in NSW and parts of northern Victoria meaning increased tree, grass, plant and flower growth.
“In parts of NSW and northern Victoria it has been a pretty wet winter so we are probably going to see more growth with crops and flowers,” Mr Narramore said.
“Every spring is pretty bad for hay fever but this season could be a little bit worse because things are quite lush and green to the North so when those dry out later into spring and we get these northerly winds it’ll probably drag down some of that pollen from Northern Victorian and NSW.”
BOM’s national outlook also predicts a drier spring for those living in Western Australia despite Australia’s wettest winter since 2016.
The current outlook predicts cooler than average nights for south-west Australia with spring days also tipped to be warner for the Top End and Tasmania.
