Beach weather not over yet.

Beach weather not over yet. Photo: Eddie Jim



Don't put away your beach towel and bathers just yet.


Water temperatures in Port Phillip Bay are running at least 3 degrees above normal for this time of year, at 24 degrees, stoked in part by Melbourne's record March heatwave which ended on Wednesday.


"From the ocean's point of view, it's still late summer," said Blair Trewin, senior climatologist at the weather bureau.


Dr Trewin described the warmth as "very significant", with the warm waters more akin to conditions in places much further north, such as Sydney.


Seas around Australia are also warmer, with surface temperatures reaching record highs at the end of February, according to a Special Climate Statement issued by the Bureau of Meteorology in the wake of this month's heatwave across south-eastern Australia.


Summer sea temperatures were 0.5 degrees above normal and the warmest since records began in 1900, the bureau said.


"These warm coastal waters have contributed to the prolonged warm conditions by reducing the potential for sea breezes to cool temperatures on and near the coast," the report said.


Humidity has also increased over the period, making the warm days and nights stickier.


Melbourne's seven consecutive nights of 20 degrees or higher was the longest such stretch – by one day – in 158 years of records by the bureau.


The nine-day run of daily maximums of 30 degrees or warmer broke the old record, set in February 1961, by two days. Friday's top of 23 degrees just after 1pm also made it 100 days of temperatures 20 degrees or warmer for the city, the second longest stretch of such weather.


During the first 12 days of March, maximum temperatures were more than 6.9 degrees above normal across Tasmania, 6.8 degrees above average in Victoria and as much as 10 degrees warmer in areas near Mount Gambier in south-eastern South Australia.


Victoria, though, may fall short of breaking the record temperatures set in March 1940, when 14 days topped 30 degrees and the second half of the month was particularly hot.


Melbourne should see conditions warm again by the middle of next week, with Thursday forecast to reach 33 degrees, which would be the 10th day of 30 degrees or more for the month.