Melbourne weather

[Kat G]

Hi there, just a quick one. Is the weather in Melbourne really that bad? I’ve seen a lot of negative comments about it on here (although lots of old threads) but on paper it looks at worst pretty mild to me! I’m from the UK - so surely it’s got to be an improvement!

[BendigoBoy]

You'll acclimatise.

We generally don't get a lot of humidity around the Bay over the summer months, so don't be surprised if you end up throwing a jumper on in 30C heat.  

Honestly, as long as you keep a brolly or two in the house, have some PROPER winter clothing, and a good rain jacket, you'll be fine.

It's the damned storms as we go into December where you get hail the size of golf balls as the summer begins to hit that'll make you roll your eyes the most.

Don't worry - if it is still a bit chill, hop in the car up to Bendigo.  This place gets like an oven in the summer.  It's delicious.

[Ken]

17 minutes ago, Kat G said:

Hi there, just a quick one. Is the weather in Melbourne really that bad? I’ve seen a lot of negative comments about it on here (although lots of old threads) but on paper it looks at worst pretty mild to me! I’m from the UK - so surely it’s got to be an improvement!

On average Melbourne's weather is better than the UK. The problem is that it doesn't stay average (or anything else) for long. In the summer it can be 40 degrees and then drop to 20 in the course of an afternoon. Winters are never what I would call wintry. I've heard stories about giant hail showers but in 9 years in Melbourne I didn't see anything worse than light hail and that very rarely. It does however get very autumnal for 6 months of the year. It's frequently windy (more so than in the UK in my experience) even during the summer months.

[Marisawright]

You'll hear a lot of negative comments from Australians about Melbourne weather, because by most Australian standards, the weather is s***.   

It's the unpredictability that annoys people most.   Melbourne is unique in the world, because it's on the edge of a very hot continent, but also there's nothing between it and the Antarctic except Tasmania. When the wind blows from the north in the summer, it brings tremendous heat.   But if the wind blows from the south, it's freezing. And the wind direction can change on a sixpence at any time of day. 

When I moved to Melbourne from Sydney, I had to buy woolly hats and scarves and gloves for the first time in 30 years.  I also had to start remembering to carry my umbrella, because it's like Scotland (where I come from) in that regard --- you never know when it might rain. So it probably depends where in the UK you're used to.  If I compare it with Hampshire where I lived in 2015, I'd say Hampshire wins for weather. But if I compare it with Edinburgh, then Melbourne would come out ahead.

Having said all that, I prefer Melbourne weather to most of the rest of Australia, because I don't handle the heat well, especially sticky humid heat.  Melbourne does get hot but even on a 40 degree day, it's pleasantly cool in the morning till 10 or 11 am, so you can get out and do stuff comfortably.  And the humidity is very low compared to Sydney or Brisbane, so it's a more comfortable heat when it does get hot.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Marisawright

[InnerVoice]

54 minutes ago, Kat G said:

Hi there, just a quick one. Is the weather in Melbourne really that bad? I’ve seen a lot of negative comments about it on here (although lots of old threads) but on paper it looks at worst pretty mild to me! I’m from the UK - so surely it’s got to be an improvement!

The weather in Melbourne is better than anywhere in the UK, but it seems pretty average compared to other Australian major cities. I lived there for 6 months (Dec to May) and was surprised by just how many grey days there were, which I found rather depressing. Maybe I'm a bit biased because I like to see a few hills and Melbourne is as flat as a pancake, so that didn't appeal much. I've read that in terms of climate it's comparable with Lisbon, which sounds pretty nice on the face of it. My main concern about moving to Melbourne these days would be the cost of living, rather than the weather.

[OT2]

1 hour ago, BendigoBoy said:

You'll acclimatise.

We generally don't get a lot of humidity around the Bay over the summer months, so don't be surprised if you end up throwing a jumper on in 30C heat.  

Honestly, as long as you keep a brolly or two in the house, have some PROPER winter clothing, and a good rain jacket, you'll be fine.

It's the damned storms as we go into December where you get hail the size of golf balls as the summer begins to hit that'll make you roll your eyes the most.

Don't worry - if it is still a bit chill, hop in the car up to Bendigo.  This place gets like an oven in the summer.  It's delicious.

Not too warm in Bendigo at the moment. We have friends from Scotland finding it quite homelike 🥶

[Quoll]

My first introduction to Melbourne many years ago was standing on Flinders St station in August and the wind had not stopped anywhere en route from the South Pole - the only other time I had ever been as bone chillingly cold was on Holy Island in the winter!  I find Ballarat to be one of the coldest places on earth and no matter what I put in the backpack it is never enough and I end up buying more layers (mind you, Ballarat can also be one of the closest ovens to hell in the summer on occasion!).  Comparing Melbourne to Cambridge (which has a lovely kind of micro climate I think) - Cambridge would win.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Quoll

[Kat G]

1 hour ago, InnerVoice said:

The weather in Melbourne is better than anywhere in the UK, but it seems pretty average compared to other Australian major cities. I lived there for 6 months (Dec to May) and was surprised by just how many grey days there were, which I found rather depressing. Maybe I'm a bit biased because I like to see a few hills and Melbourne is as flat as a pancake, so that didn't appeal much. I've read that in terms of climate it's comparable with Lisbon, which sounds pretty nice on the face of it. My main concern about moving to Melbourne these days would be the cost of living, rather than the weather.

Hey, is the cost of living still crazy in comparison to other states? It’s definitely a concern! Thanks 

[Kat G]

Thanks everyone, really helpful. Good to be prepared!

[InnerVoice]

13 minutes ago, Kat G said:

Hey, is the cost of living still crazy in comparison to other states? It’s definitely a concern! Thanks 

Yes. Property prices and renting in nearly all Australian major cities has become very expensive in recent years, but Melbourne and Sydney are in a league of their own.

[Marisawright]

26 minutes ago, Kat G said:

Hey, is the cost of living still crazy in comparison to other states? It’s definitely a concern! Thanks 

It's the cost of housing that varies rather than the cost of living.   And it's more accurate to say it varies from capital city to capital city, rather than talking about states, because property values in regional areas don't vary as much.  

Looking at 'median' or 'average' house prices to compare cities is misleading, because Melbourne's 'average' includes properties over a much wider area than, say, Adelaide's.  So Melbourne's 'median' doesn't sound too bad at around $1 million for a house, but then you realise that if you need to live in the inner suburbs, that will only buy you a two-bed apartment.

https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/what-can-you-buy-for-melbourne-s-median-house-price-20230518-p5d9ax.html

Sydney prices are horrendous, Melbourne and Canberra are about two-thirds of Sydney prices (for an equivalent distance from the city centre).  Everywhere else is a bit more reasonable although house prices are a big issue everywhere in Australia at present.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Marisawright

[BendigoBoy]

12 hours ago, OT2 said:

Not too warm in Bendigo at the moment. We have friends from Scotland finding it quite homelike 🥶

To be fair, it's the middle of winter.

To this day, I still can't get my head around most folk I know here not turning the damned heating on in the winter, though.  (Present cost of living crises excepted)

[InnerVoice]

We have the opposite up here in Cairns. Some folks like to boast that they never run their aircon all year - well you can usually spot them as they look like they need hosing down most of the time! When we first moved up I was amazed by how many places didn't have aircon (when compared with somewhere like Thailand), and it was only a couple of years ago that we finally got it installed in every classroom in our school. You can just imagine the attention span of a bunch of teenagers when it's 37C and about 95% humidity.