Heat Buckles Rails. 04 Jan 1940. The hottest places in the state to day were Mildura and Ouyen, which recorded 107 degrees. = 41.6 Celsius.
1940 ‘Heat Buckles Rails’, Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 – 1954), 4 January, p. 6. (LATE NEWS EDITION and DAILY), viewed 04 Jan 2022, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/92656466?searchTerm=extreme%20heat%20in%20melbourne#
MELBOURNE, Wednesday.
The temperature in Melbourne to-day reached a maximum of 103.6 degrees at 1.20 p.m., making it the hottest day of this summer, and then dropped 19 degrees in 40 minutes.
By 3 o’clock, however, the temperature had again risen to 92.4 degrees.
The previous hottest day this summer was last Thursday when the temperature reached 101.4 degrees.
The hottest places in the state to day were Mildura and Ouyen, which recorded 107 degrees, and Swan Hill, Horsham, and Orbost, all of which registered 105 degrees.
The Weather Bureau predicts a cool change in southern districts.
One effect of to-day’s heat was that three chains of railway tracks on the Mornington line buckled, and the special race train was held up, its 200 passengers being taken to the course
by omnibuses. The buckling occurred half a mile from Baxter railway station. Another section of the line between Malmsbury and Kyneton was also buckled by the extreme heat, and the traffic was diverted to the other line.