If you enjoyed the warm weather in Melbourne on Thursday we have some bad news for you. Friday will be more than 10ºC colder and the temperature will drop even more this weekend. 

Warm northwesterly winds flowing over Victoria ahead of an approaching front caused temperatures to reach summer-like highs in some parts of the state on Thursday. 

Melbourne's Olympic Park weather station reached 29.3ºC shortly after 2:00pm on Thursday and some parts of the city managed to push into the low-thirties during the afternoon.  

This was well above Melbourne's April average maximum temperature of 20ºC. It would even be a few degrees warmer than average for the city in the middle of summer. 

But warm days as this time of year don't come without a cold snap hot on their heels. Or perhaps cold on the heels is more fitting. 

Over the next few days, two cold fronts will sweep across southeastern Australia and cause temperatures to plummet. 

Image: Cold air over southeastern Australia on Sunday in the wake of two cold fronts.

The first front will arrive in Melbourne on Thursday night, with Friday's top temperature only forecast to reach 17ºC.  

The second front will hit the city on Saturday, pegging the temperature back even further. At this stage, Melbourne is only forecast to reach 15ºC on Sunday. 

Cold air in the wake of these fronts will also allow snow to reach low levels on the weekend. Snow could fall to about 600 metres in Tasmania and 1000 metres in Victoria by Sunday. Some places could see more than 10cm of fresh snow cover by the end of the weekend.

For some areas in southeastern Australia, this pair of fronts will bring the coldest weather so far this season.