Melbourne's unprecedented balmy weather has hit new highs, as the city basks in its warmest start to a year on record.
A combination of freak weather conditions and rising global temperatures has culminated in Melbourne recording 22.5C as its average maximum temperature for 2013 so far, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The bureau's climate services centre manager for Victoria Harvey Stern said a number of irregular circumstances contributed to the temperature jump, not just global temperature rises.
"Because of a number of extended periods with 'blocking' high pressure systems over the Tasman Sea, we were due a few hot years," Dr Stern said.
"That said, we have seen the average global temperature rise 0.8C in the past 50 years."
Melbourne's warm start eclipses the 2007 record and is well above the long-term average of 20.4C.
Sky News senior meteorologist Tom Saunders said the lingering heat has also affected Victoria's ski season.
He said the peak snow depth recorded by Snowy Hydro this winter was just 64.6cm whereas typically by mid-July the Alpine snow depth exceeds one metre.
But don't put away the brolly just yet as Melbourne has also been soaked with 119.2mm of rain in the wettest first half of winter for 22 years.
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