Senior Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, Michael Efron, has given an update on what weather fans and players can expect in Melbourne for Week 1 of finals.
With a cold, wintry blast hitting the city on the eve of the finals, fans were gearing up for wild and wet conditions on Thursday and Friday in particular.
Earlier in the week hail and potential thunderstorms were being touted for Thursday’s Collingwood v Melbourne Qualifying Final at the MCG, however, Efron now has more positive news.
“I'd say mixed news (for Thursday),” Efron told SEN Afternoons.
“We're going to see some rain moving through during the evening.
“It won't be raining for the whole game, however, so not a complete washout.
“It’s reasonably light rain as well for spectators, we’re not looking at rain for the whole time, which is good.
“In terms of temperatures looking at around 15 or 16 degrees for tomorrow night, so not too cold.”
While Friday’s clash between Carlton and Sydney likely won’t be as wet as the previous night, Efron says that’s when the cold will really set in.
“On Friday, that will be when we'll see really cold conditions for Blues and the Swans,” Efron said.
“We will see a couple of showers around, probably not as wet as the Demons and the Pies game, but the temperature will be the main difference there.
“We're looking at temperatures around seven or eight degrees during the game, slight chance of some hail as well on Friday night, very cold winds as well.
“Again, not raining for the entire game, which is good news.”
With St Kilda also hosting GWS at the venue on Saturday, Efron expects similarly cold conditions to stick around as well as strong winds.
“On Saturday it's a similar story with just some showers passing through for the Saints v Giants game,” Efron said.
“It’s not raining the whole time, but very cold with those strong and gusty winds around again and even the slight chance of some hail as well.
“So, certainly a taste of winter for the Melbourne matches.”
Plenty of chatter surrounding the Magpies v Demons clash has taken into account extremely wet weather, but Efron expects showers to ease sometime during the clash.
As for fans, the meteorologist isn’t expecting the rain to be too heavy either.
“We're probably looking at that rain arriving around 6 or 7pm, so really close to the start of the match,” Efron said.
“But then I think as we head into the latter part of the game, we'll see that starting to ease and it’ll be reasonably light as well.
“We’re not looking at a downpour for the whole match, we'll just see some patchy light rain moving through.”
Brisbane will host Port Adelaide at the Gabba on Saturday night with the BOM forecasting perfect conditions.
It is expected to reach a max of 24 degrees during the day with no rain forecast.
Listen to Efron’s full chat with Dwayne Russell below.