Olympic Park in the south of Melbourne recorded a top of 23.8 degrees at 10am EDT this morning, while the airport further north topped out at 32.6 degrees at 4pm - significant differences considering they're only 20 km apart.

Northeasterly winds at the airport allowed the mercury to rise during the late morning before southerly component winds dropped temperatures a few degrees a little after midday. Winds then swung more east with a little bit of north and picked up the peak of the heat from northern inland, resulting in the top of 32.6. The southerly winds kicked in again just after 4pm and dropped temps to the mid-20's by 5pm.

In contrast, Olympic Park missed the warmer northerly component winds and was dominated by the cooler southerly air blowing across Port Phillip Bay keeping temperatures in the low 20's.

Image: Winds and temperature at 2pm EDT Saturday 20th February using the ECMWF model. The northerly winds and southerly winds can be seen over both locations at this time step creating the stark temperature difference.

On Sunday, temperatures should be more similar between the locations with a dominant southerly flow. However, compared to the sunshine today, the skies are likely to be filled with clouds.