pippin lara

Planning to go to Melbourne in January. Was reading something recently which suggested that the weather in Melbourne was comparable to that of the South of England.

Can anyone who has experience of both areas let me know how they thought the weather compared.

When I look at a globe or atlas, it looks as if Melbourne is as far north as central Spain is south, which would suggest that Melbourne has a more temperate climate than England (although I know this isn't a scientific method)

Thanks David

Buzzy--Bee

Many people describe Melbourne as "England plus 7 degrees".

eg South England gets a high of about 35 degrees, Melbourne gets 42.
South England gets a low of -4, Melbourne gets 3.

Melburnians will be awake in a few hours, you should get more responses then.



Buzzy

Melchels

Not really coparable, we live in Melbourne and lived in London previously. The winter is milder (some nice warm days) and the summer is very hot (40 degrees for a few days last year!) and it is quite a common occurrance.

I would suggest that the climate is more like Southern spain rather than Bognor Regis!

busterboy

that's encouraging!

Lord Pom Percy

Yes Melbournes a bit warmer then sth. England, but go down further to Tasmania and the weather there is probably about the same as Sth. England.

BadgeIsBack

Search back through my old posts and you will find alot of Melbourne weather observations.

To summarise, Melbourne winters are not as nice as Sydney, Perth or Brisbane. They can be wet, they can be overcast. But they only last 3 months, you do get a fair bit of sunny days, and the temps probably are 7 degrees warmer. ie mid teens rather than high singles. You won't get to 20 though like in the other capitals.

Spring and autumn are like British summers (plus) only with less daylight and colder evenings (for a while), and summer is hot, dry and low humiidity, stacks of daylight, where you do get 35 degrees. With cool days to ring the changes - thank God. Best summer weather in Australia. England has only just got 35 odd in a few weeks in recent years - Melbourne gets it all the time and more - to early mid 40s.

The 4 seasons is a complete myth. You do occasionally get a change. Lots of cities do.

Often its warmer at night in Melbourne in winter due to the cloud cover.

You don't get the constant azure blue skies of other cities in all seasons but often the clouds can be quite interesting, it's not the perma-cloud winter cover of the UK. You'll get over it.

The onset of winter can be variable. It kind of arrived the first week of April and rained for a month which fooled us into thinking we were in for a bad winter. We weren't - though it was cold in June. In 2005 it was sunny for most of April and May.

NickyC

Melbourne is at approximately the same latitude to the Greek Islands, southern Italy and southern Spain - so the weather will be similar to those places and definitely 100% better than the south of England!.

Brian Clough down under

Yeah, the aussies reckon Melbourne is cold, but it's not to us. I went there for the tennis in January and it was pushing 40c. The winters are colder than Sydney, but still better than an English winter.

Mally Lass

The South of England is roughly where they class London, which is always the warmest.

True South, Devon/Cornwall never reaches 35, or at least it hasn't since I've lived here. Last summer was one of the hottest on record for Devon/Cornwall at 28.

haggis supper

David,

I had 18 years in Ayr (doon the waaaater from you), then 8 in London and 7 in Hampshire. Have been in Melbourne for a year.

There is no comparison. Whilst somewhat changeable the weather here is considerably better. Not as good or hot as the rest of Australia but much warmer and drier.

In the UK you get 4 months max of decent warm weather and 8 months where its colder, darker and wetter. Its the reverse here, 4 months where its colder (about 6 degrees at 7am, then a steady 15 degrees during the day) and darker and then 8 months of better weather.

In the past year I've only used an umbrella twice whilst walking to/from work and wore a coat over my suit for about a 4 week period.

I've been playing golf every Sunday for the last 5 months and never once needed an umbrella or waterproofs. And that was in the middle of winter. In the UK there were numerous times we walked off or could not play due to rain.

We now have a much more active and outdoor life and regularly swim, surf, play tennis and golf etc.

Hope that helps.

Colin

Pomster

I used to live on Kent coast and in London before moving to Melbourne.

Variations in temps are similar to Kent Coast, but Melb is definitely warmer by several degrees.
I have been here 6 years and have had frost on my car twice, which melted within about 20 seconds. In London/Surrey I used to defrost my windowscreen every morning in Nov/Dec/Jan.

Now I do think Melbourne winters are cold but that is just because I am used to them!!!!

OzTennis

Hold your atlas the Australian way (upside down) and then Melbourne will seem as far SOUTH as central Spain does NORTH!

Claims that Melbourne's climate is like the south or south east of England are urban myth - Melbourne is about 36 degrees latitude south, London about 51 degrees north, albeit with a moderating influence for the latter of continental Europe and the Gulf Stream. As others have said think more of a Mediterranean climate for Melbourne.

I come from Melbourne and live not far south of you in Bonnie Galloway but have spent a lot of time playing tennis on the south coast during all 4 seasons. I'd say Hobart is vaguely approaching southern England's climate, Melbourne is definitely much hotter in summer, very rarely below zero even on the coldest nights and very much drier. The 4 seasons in one day urban myth rarely happens but a look at the map will confirm that it is the bottom right hand corner of the continent and is influenced from the west, north and south (rarely east) and therefore can be changeable.

Why believe opinions though? Here's the facts (in metric though):

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averag...w_086071.shtml

OzTennis

OzTennis

QED!!

Would London or south coast of England have these temperatures in early spring? (September in Melbourne = March in London).

http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...431712070.html

OzTennis

BadgeIsBack

[QUOTE=OzTennis], London about 51 degrees north, albeit with a moderating influence for the latter of continental Europe and the Gulf Stream.

[QUOTE]

Otherwise London would be as cold as parts of Canada. The fact its a small island would help of course.

MartinLuther

Melbourne's weather is similar to Nice in the South of France with slight differences in that you are more likely to have icy roads in a Nice winter and you have longer runs of very hot days in Nice.

As someone else said, Melbourne's latitude is similar to Sicily or southern Spain. However, because the southern hemisphere is cooler than the northern hemisphere* and because there is nothing between us and the Antarctic it is cooler than these northern hemisphere equivalents.

* This will be the other way around in about 11,000 years time

It has been shown that most people who slate Melbourne's weather do not actually live here. Anyone who describes it as being comparable to anywhere in England is obviously suffering from a severe case of sour grapes with large shoulder chips on the side