# Melbourne and climate



## BunnyM (Jan 7, 2009)

Hi there, 

Myself and my husband are planning a move to Australia in the next few months. We live in Ireland at the moment and one of our main motivations for moving is the weather! We are tired of the rain and the grey skies and thought a move to Oz could do us the world of good 

We are considering Melbourne as an option as we know some people there but the weather is a really important factor for us. We've heard of the '4 seasons in one day' theory about Melbourne and we're not sure whether to be worried! Does anyone know what percentage of the time in Melbourne it's overcast / grey / rainy. I know Melbourne is a beautiful city but we would also consider Sydney if the weather is that bad....

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

B


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## amaslam (Sep 25, 2008)

It's hard to say what percentage it's cloudy/overcast because that doesn't necessarily last all day. The 4 seasons in one day essentially means something like this (i.e. a summer day).

Day starts, maybe 17 degrees and cloudy. Sun comes out two hours later, day starts heating up, by 2 PM you've hit 35, by 5 PM a fierce wind comes through and the temps dropped to 25, 1 hour later it's 22 and cloudy, 15 mins after that it rains, temp keeps dropping to 15. 

Not every day but it's nutty like that. Mainly I hate it because you can wake up and it's cool so you take a jumper, then a heatwave day comes through and you're cursing yourself for carrying a jumper, then a chill comes through and you have to turn on the heat that night and put on a jumper again. So the weather is jumper weather, shorts weather, jumper weather.

But if you're in Ireland pretty much any place other than Tasmania will be less rainy and more Sunny. Take a look at Adelaide as they have decent weather, reasonable costs, coastal. By no means the only place but not any sort of extreme there. I'm sure a certain Mt. Gambier fan will pop up any second 

I've always been in Sydney, I've never found it extremely expensive (but my experience is compared to living in New York most of my life). I love the Sydney weather but wish I could have Melbournes road and transport system. 

If you want to keep a weather check why not just go to one of the Mel newspapers and look at the weather page each day. You'll get an idea of the weather then. 



BunnyM said:


> Hi there,
> 
> Myself and my husband are planning a move to Australia in the next few months. We live in Ireland at the moment and one of our main motivations for moving is the weather! We are tired of the rain and the grey skies and thought a move to Oz could do us the world of good
> 
> ...


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## Dolly (Feb 17, 2008)

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum.

Melbourne weather can be unpredictable (to say the least).... as Amaslam says you can wake up in the morning and it's overcast and around 15 degs, by mid afternoon it could get into the high 20s and be a beautiful warm day, then by the evening it's cooled off again. There's a saying, always carry an umbrella with you as you never know when you'll need it!!! I love the weather here....it's more like the weather in the UK than the other States but a lot better. We do get the 4 seasons, in the mountains we get snow in winter and in summer it can get to over 40 degs. 

What we like is that when it does get very hot, it only lasts a few days, then it cools off a bit, and then it might get back up there again...giving us some respite. I couldn't stand the weather in FNQ, way to humid for me. Even in the depths of winter it's really not that cold (compared to the UK or Ireland). We've been here about 15 months now and I've probably worn my fleece 3 times and never worn a coat yet.

You can always check out http://www.weather.com.au/vic/melbourne 

What visa have you got?

Dolly


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## British Kiwi (Jul 5, 2008)

I agree with Dolly. the weather in Melbourne is great. I've only been here 2 months, and we've had all sorts, but even when it's been raining, it's been great. None of this drizzly miserable rain. After spending the last 8 years in the Isle of Man and a lot of last year in Dublin's fair city, the weather here is refreshing. I was here in winter and it was colder, but not too bad. Anyway, Melbourne is a wonderful city and the surrounding areas are beautiful so it all makes up for it.
Hope that helps.


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

amaslam said:


> But if you're in Ireland pretty much any place other than Tasmania will be less rainy and more Sunny. Take a look at Adelaide as they have decent weather, reasonable costs, coastal. By no means the only place but not any sort of extreme there. I'm sure a certain Mt. Gambier fan will pop up any second


Who could that be?    

BunnyM I think that Tassie may be a bit chilly for you since we were there one summer and it was cold - just like being back in the UK for us! 

What visa are you coming over on? If you can move around then give Melbourne a try and if it doesn work out you can move on in a while.....

Regards,
Karen (Mt Gambier fan )


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## Halo (May 8, 2008)

British Kiwi said:


> I agree with Dolly. the weather in Melbourne is great. I've only been here 2 months, and we've had all sorts, but even when it's been raining, it's been great. None of this drizzly miserable rain. After spending the last 8 years in the Isle of Man and a lot of last year in Dublin's fair city, the weather here is refreshing. I was here in winter and it was colder, but not too bad. Anyway, Melbourne is a wonderful city and the surrounding areas are beautiful so it all makes up for it.
> Hope that helps.


You kidding...? I've be here for almost the same and its been poor - Cold, wet miserable December to boot. (ask any ozzi)


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## Dolly (Feb 17, 2008)

Halo said:


> You kidding...? I've be here for almost the same and its been poor - Cold, wet miserable December to boot. (ask any ozzi)


I think if you've lived in Ireland or the UK and suffered winters there (and summers) the weather in Melbourne is by far better. Agree this summer isn't as good as last year but it's not 'cold'...... get a grip man (or a hot water bottle  ).

Dolly


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## Halo (May 8, 2008)

I had my heating on in Dec....


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## Dolly (Feb 17, 2008)

Halo said:


> I had my heating on in Dec....


 

Dolly


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## Halo (May 8, 2008)

At least I was warm in the UK


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

Here's a link for Elder weather website for Melbourne
Melbourne weather forecast, Bureau of Meteorology Warnings & rainfall

You can check back over the last 3 months and see the actual temperatures there.

As Dolly said this season has not been as good as last year. In November 2007 my parents were over here for a month and it was beautiful weather and we could take them out and about. In November 2008 it seemed to rain most of the month but as Dolly mentioned it wasn't that cold. 

Now in January it seems like it's beginning to hit 'proper' summer temperatures....

Regards,
Karen


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## BunnyM (Jan 7, 2009)

Thanks so much everyone for your responses. At the moment we are applyng for a skilled migrant visa but in the meantime we were hoping to move over on a sponsorship visa. My husband works in construction and has been told there is plenty of work for him. The reason we had considered Melbourne first is because my husbands sister lives there. But I know how much the weather affects him (well both of us really!) so we thought Sydney/beaches etc sounded good too. Honestly here in Ireland the weather has been so depressing, two summers in a row I thnk it rained every day. And it struggled to get about 16C on most days. We're both outdoors people so miserable weather here really restricts us. It's also so difficult to face an Irish winter after summers like that. We just feel if we are going to move to the other side of the world then we really do want an improvement in lifestyle and weather.


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## sgilli3 (Mar 23, 2008)

The thing I miss the most about Melbourne ( apart from the family and friends), is the WEATHER!

I love having 4 seasons- and I dont mind if we have them all in 1 day, and I cant wait to get back to the weather back home.
( sure, I'll probably moan about how cold, wet + windy it is...but...still, Im looking forward to it)


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## Tiffani (Dec 4, 2007)

We have had to use our fire in December too  

from Ireland it will be an improvement though weather-wise. 

The thing to keep in mind is that the houses aren't well-insulated as a rule (except new ones) so don't expect to come home to a nice warm house. I lived in northern England for three years and have never felt so cold as I did last winter in Melbourne, even though it doesn't get nearly as cold as England or even the US where I"m from, at least in those places we had a decent heating and insulation system!


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

Tiffani said:


> The thing to keep in mind is that the houses aren't well-insulated as a rule (except new ones) so don't expect to come home to a nice warm house. I lived in northern England for three years and have never felt so cold as I did last winter in Melbourne, even though it doesn't get nearly as cold as England or even the US where I"m from, at least in those places we had a decent heating and insulation system!


One of the first things we did (we arrived winter 2007) was to add insulation around all the doors and windows since the drafts were incredible. The actual building insulation is pretty good in our house but with all those drafts you'd never know it back then


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## Tiffani (Dec 4, 2007)

maybe that's the problem Kaz... more the drafts than the insulation itself. But anyway we're renting so we're soooo not going to dump money into fixing it!


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

Tiffani said:


> maybe that's the problem Kaz... more the drafts than the insulation itself. But anyway we're renting so we're soooo not going to dump money into fixing it!


But the landlord could fix it....


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## Dolly (Feb 17, 2008)

I have to say, I don't miss many things from the UK except central heating and double glazing.

Dolly


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## Tiffani (Dec 4, 2007)

exactly Dolly! Central heating and double glazing would be SOOOOO welcome here


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

You don't have central heating!?? 

We do. It's through air vents in the ceiling but it's very effective and you don't have to arrange your furniture around radiators like we used to in the UK. 

However thinking about it I think it does depend on the house, since some of the houses we looked at just had electric fires or free standing radiators in the rooms. 

So central heating is available out here 

We haven't got double glazing either and we have a lot of big windows in our place so the plan is to get some quotes and replace them a few at a time.


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## sgilli3 (Mar 23, 2008)

No central heating-???

I never lived in a house in Melbourne that never had it- oops not quite true.
We did have a pot-belly stove in one house for a few years when I was young- but the day natural gas came to town, was a huge deal.

Im sure my mum was 1st in line signing up for it....lol


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## kaz101 (Nov 29, 2007)

Well we won't have to worry about central heating today since it's going to be in the late 30's and early 40's around SE Australia


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## Tiffani (Dec 4, 2007)

not many rental houses in Melbourne have it, but I think most homes that people own and live in do. anyway, like you said, today it won't be an issue


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## tentuoi (Jan 14, 2009)

on average melbourne is voted to be the most livable city in the world.

the weather is hot and the sund shines like crazy.

anyway, i'm going to leave melbourne, if you are interested in moving to melbourne to live, you surely need some stuffs , i have a lot to leave behind maybe you are interested 

please contact me


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## IrishAngel (Mar 12, 2008)

BunnyM said:


> Hi there,
> 
> Myself and my husband are planning a move to Australia in the next few months. We live in Ireland at the moment and one of our main motivations for moving is the weather! We are tired of the rain and the grey skies and thought a move to Oz could do us the world of good
> 
> ...


 Believe me Bunny you will be praying for an Irish day after a couple of months  where in melbourne are you looking at living?? and where in ireland are you from??

Paula


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## BunnyM (Jan 7, 2009)

IrishAngel said:


> Believe me Bunny you will be praying for an Irish day after a couple of months  where in melbourne are you looking at living?? and where in ireland are you from??
> 
> Paula


Hi Paula

I am orignally from Kilkenny and my hubbie is from Dublin. To be honest we have no detailed plans yet. We have kicked off the skilled migrant visa application but are really really hoping that one of us can get sponsored to move over sooner rather than later. I am in IT and my husband is in Construction. I know things have slowed down everyhwere but I hope they still desperately need people like us in Australia! We have our hearts set on going asap.

Nice to hear the weather report frm an Irish cailin anyway  I'm sure nothing can be worse than Ireland has been for the last couple of years!!!

B


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