Showers, cold temperatures to dampen Melbourne Cup revelry
Punters heading to Flemington for Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup have been warned to pack up mats and bring umbrellas, with forecasters predicting a sharp drop in rain and temperatures.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines said Melbourne remained cool and blustery after Monday’s soaking, with up to 35mm of rain falling on the city.
“Unfortunately today is a bit of a wintry day across Melbourne,” Mr Hines said.
“We’re looking at a high temperature of around 17 degrees, but with the breeze and light winds we may struggle to reach that; we’ll be stuck in the mid-teens for most of the day.”
The showers have been continuing since Monday night and Mr Hines said the rain would continue to fall across the city throughout Cup Day.
“We predict that there will be intermittent showers throughout the day on Tuesday,” he said.
“We saw a pretty significant cold front across Melbourne on Monday, which brought all the rain yesterday and left behind a cool south-westerly wind that dragged showers from the Southern Ocean across Victoria.”
Despite the bleak outlook, there could be a brief postponement for the main event at Flemington.
“It looks like race time is on a knife edge,” Mr. Hines said.
“We are expecting lots of showers before the race, but we should see skies briefly clear in the middle of the day, maybe some sunshine and some dry weather from late morning to mid-afternoon.”
The Cup Day cold snap is part of a wider pattern affecting much of eastern Australia, with showers and storms spreading across the country.
Sydney is facing a partly cloudy day with light showers expected in the afternoon and a maximum temperature of 25C, while Canberra sees a very high chance of showers in the morning and afternoon with a maximum of 13C.
Temperatures expected to reach 30C in Brisbane; There will be moderate showers in the morning, followed by mostly sunny skies.
The weather in Adelaide and Hobart is mostly cloudy, with a high chance of rain or showers that will ease in the afternoon. The maximum temperatures for the cities are estimated to be 17C and 18C respectively.
Perth is also on watch, with temperatures expected to reach 30C, showers and possible thunderstorms and gusty winds in the hills.
Even Darwin is not completely dry; There is a moderate chance of showers and thunderstorms in the late morning and afternoon and the expected maximum temperature is 34C.
The weather bureau said the unstable conditions were linked to a strong negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), the most negative since 2008, which increased tropical humidity across the country and increased rainfall during the spring months.
With Melbourne facing wet weather on Tuesday, Mr Hines said there was some good news on the horizon.
“It looks like we will need to see some breakage in the wet conditions tomorrow,” he said.
“There’s definitely a chance of showers on Wednesday morning, but most of the afternoon looks bright and fairly sunny, but still on the cool side.
“The early outlook for Thursday, Oaks Day, is pretty good, mostly fair, with a chance of showers after dark.”
Melbourne Spring Carnival has long been at the mercy of the elements.
The wettest Cup Day on record occurred in 1976, when a storm unleashed its fury; the coldest was 1913, when the mercury reached just 11°C.
