IT'S probably a good thing that many of us remain in our homes, as later this week, Ballarat has an outside chance of seeing its coldest April day ever.
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A fierce polar blast from Antarctica is predicted to smash Victoria and Tasmania from Wednesday evening with Thursday and Friday both not expected to see the mercury climb into double figures.
On Thursday, Ballarat is heading for a top of just nine degrees, but depending on how much rain falls and how much wind blows, we potentially might not even reach our all-time coldest April day of 7.2 degrees which was set back on April 21, 1960.
Friday is meant to be even worse with a top of just eight degrees predicted, but given that is in May, there are no chances that day will touch the record, given the city's coldest ever day of just 3.2 degrees occurred in that month.
Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Miriam Bradbury this was a typical late April-early May pattern that often occurred and given it is the firs real wintry blast of the year, it will probably feel colder than it actually is
"We do usually start to see these wintry cold front bringing up the antarctic air at this time of year," Ms Bradbury said,
"The trend to date has been a reasonably mild autumn with some settled weather in the mid to high teens in recent weeks, although we have seen a bit of rain.
"We will feel a bit of a shock when this hits."
Last year, the first snowfall of the season fell in late May, hitting the ground in Ballarat on May 30.
Ms Bradbury said at this stage modelling was for snow to reach as low as 1000m, but there was potential that Ballarat could see the odd flake hit the ground on Friday morning when the weather would be at its coldest.
"The first snow fall is always exciting and we could potentially see a little bit hit the ground and it would be Friday morning if it were to occur."
Ms Bradbury said most modelings predicted top of nine degrees on Thursday, suggesting it was possible, but unlikely that a record would occur.
The cold and showery weather will hang around into early next week. The wettest period will be Wednesday night, but squalls could bring up to 10mm on both Thursday and Friday and temperatures will remain below 12 until at least Monday.
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