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Melbourne weather: Tullamarine pea-souper causes Virgin pilot to abort landing

Melbourne's pea-soup fog was so thick on Wednesday morning that the pilot of a flight from Canberra had to abort their landing.

The Virgin Australia flight was descending into Melbourne Airport when its pilot judged the fog was too heavy for the plane to land safely. They were forced to pull the Boeing 737 out of the landing. The flight was then diverted to Sydney.

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Melbourne weather: fog blankets city

Skyscrapers, bridges and planes disappeared beneath a thick fog on Wednesday morning.

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said the "missed approach" was routine and did not pose a risk to customers.

Several flights across numerous airlines were also delayed by up to an hour and one Qantas flight had to be diverted, an airport spokeswoman said.

The fog was thick across the city on Wednesday morning, with many social media users posting snaps of obscured landmarks.

But it had mostly cleared to hazy conditions and low clouds by midday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

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The Bureau has had to revise forecasts for a sunny day of 15 degrees down to a much less pleasant maximum of 12.

At midday the temperature in the CBD was hovering near 8 degrees.

Wednesday morning's foggy conditions were caused by cold overnight conditions.

That, combined with some low-lying moisture in the atmosphere, helped generate the thick fog, the Bureau of Meteorology's senior forecaster Tom Delamotte said.

Once the fog clears Mr Delamotte said there would be "a bit of sun about, light winds, a fairly pleasant afternoon".

VicRoads is advising drivers to take extreme care in the foggy conditions, activate headlights and fog-lights, and leave extra space between the driver in front.

A spokeswoman said traffic had been a little slower than usual.

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