Warmer weather returns in earnest across the southern states by 3 November 2026, with the first genuinely hot days of the season arriving during November, ahead of summer's official start on 1 December and the cyclone season that runs through the tropical north until April.
The Melbourne Cup is held on the first Tuesday of November every year, a public holiday in metropolitan Melbourne. Tuesday 3 November 2026 falls on this day of the week, the same weekday the race runs on every year regardless of the date it lands on, drawing national attention well beyond Victoria's own borders.
The hours and minutes shown in the countdown to 3 November 2026 are calculated against the clock and time zone set on the device displaying this page, and the countdown reaches zero at midnight local to that device. Two people in different time zones will see slightly different figures at the exact same moment, each reflecting their own local midnight.
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