As rain set in across Victoria on Monday, Ballarat struggled to climb above five degrees for the day, struggling to 6.1 degrees at 4.19pm.

For the majority of the day, the 'feels like' temperature, which takes in wind chill hovered below freezing, only briefly getting above zero later in the day, hitting .9 of a degree at 5.50pm.

While the rain set in for most of the day, we only registered 5.2mm in the gauge ti 6.30pm, after 7mm overnight.

And while it should pick up slightly for the rest of the week, the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a long, cold and damp winter ahead for much of southern Australia.

Only twice since 2010 has Ballarat experienced a colder June day. These occurred in 2010 when the mercury only reached 5.5 degrees on June 29 and in 2016 when we struggled to 4.6 degrees on June 24.

At no time in the past decade has the start of winter been so cold.

Fortunately predictions are that the weather will moderate with the city going for what will probably feel like a balmy 12 degrees on Tuesday with mostly sunny conditions expected to last until at least the weekend.

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