Chilly: Ballarat experienced its coldest May day yesterday since 2000.
IT WAS cold. It was wet. It was Ballarat in autumn.
One week before the calendar marks its official beginning, winter well and truly arrived yesterday, bringing the city its coldest May day since 2000.
Ballarat received nearly half its average monthly rainfall in just one day, with more than 27 millimetres falling in the 24 hours from 7.30pm Thursday.
The majority of that rainfall – 14.9mm – came between 4am and 9am yesterday.
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If the rain wasn’t enough to give the city a wintry blast, the temperatures made sure of it.
The mercury did not rise above 7.5 degrees for the entire day, well below the average May high of 14 degrees.
But if it felt colder, it probably was.
Weatherzone senior meteorologist Josh Fisher said the wind chill factor put Ballarat’s temperature at just two degrees.
However, Mr Fisher said the worst had passed for the time being, with wind and rain easing for the remainder of the weekend and slightly higher temperatures expected.
“There will be scattered showers but they will be more isolated,” he said.
“On Saturday we can expect a low of four degrees with a top of 11 degrees and on Sunday a low of five degrees with a top of 11 degrees.”
Mr Fisher said with skies clearing next week, winter was well and truly expected to bite early.
“On Tuesday we are expecting a minimum temperature of just one degree,” he said.