Cold winds and heavy cloud cover have plunged Melbourne into the coldest day of the year, with gusts of up to 50km/h sending a shiver through the city.


Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said Thursday was on track to record the lowest maximum temperature since August 9 last year.


“So far we’ve had 12 degrees at exactly seven minutes after midday and the low was 8 degrees at 3.11am,” he said.


“We have quite extensive cloud cover and that’s stopped the temperature from rising.”