At Avalon, west of Melbourne, the minimum was -4 degrees, its coldest morning since August 5, 1997, while at Geelong racecourse the mercury fell to -1.8 degrees at 7.30am.The minimum temperature at Rutherglen, in Victoria's far north, was a frigid -6.9 degrees at 7am. Omeo in Gippsland reached -6.3 degrees, and Swan Hill, in the Mallee, had an overnight low of -4.

Central Melbourne reported a second consecutive morning of near-freezing temperatures, with a low of -0.8 degrees recorded at 8am surpassing Saturday morning's coldest morning in two years, of 1.1 degrees.

A spokeswoman said this was "unusual" and was due to the cold freezing pipes.

By 9.30am on Sunday, Yarra Valley Water had received 170 calls from customers reporting they had woken to find no water coming out of their taps.

Those affected were advised that if they had water in the house, such as in a kettle, to heat it and pour it on pipes near the water meter. If there was no water available, the warmth of the sun should defrost the pipes and restore water flow.

Yarra Valley Water services 780,000 homes in parts of inner Melbourne and suburbs north as far as Cragieburn and east to the Yarra Valley.

"Peter", who lives in Bell Street, Fitzroy, said he woke at about 8.15am, "went to turn on the water ... no water. I ran every tap in the house and there was not even a drip."

Peter said it was "pretty annoying" but he was able to restore supply in an hour after pouring heated water from a kettle over the pipes. "But not everyone would have free standing water in the house," he said.

In Melbourne, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting the weather to remain sunny all Sunday, following early frost and local fog, with no chance of rain.