Victoria told to brace for 'damaging' winds, rain and hail as Warrnambool starts clean up - The Age

After significant flooding in Warrnambool caused by a "once in 50 years" storm, much of central and eastern Victoria is being told to brace for heavy rain and damaging winds.

Almost 50 millimetres of rain fell in the town in about an hour, with the storm crossing the area just after 2pm on Saturday.

Across just 12 minutes, more than 30 millimetres fell on the town, flooding streets in Warrnambool's south-east and leaving homes and businesses inundated.

Severe thunderstorms are likely for much of eastern Victoria on Sunday, including places such as Wodonga, Shepparton and Warragul.

The BOM was warning there could be heavy rain accompanying "storms in the east, with possible large hail and damaging winds".

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Christie Johnson said there were lightening strikes along the Bass Coast at 8.15am, with storm activity to be concentrated in the central and eastern districts of Victoria.

"It’s a slow moving trough that’s driving a lot of these storms, and it's gradually migrating eastwards," she said.

"The storms are expected to kick off once we get some heating today, so around mid-morning.

"There's a pretty high likelihood of storms causing heavy rain. We’re basically looking at another active day today."

Melbourne is expected to hit a top of 24 on Sunday.

The State Emergency Service said they received 240 calls for help across Victoria on Saturday, with 95 of those for flash flooding in Warrnambool.

A SES spokeswoman said they were not expecting storms or heavy rain in Warrnambool to be as damaging on Sunday, but clean-up would be ongoing.

"We had to call on four additional SES units from around the area to assist. There was significant damage done to some homes with water entering their premises," she said.

"It looks like things have passed for the state's west, but we are expecting significant weather to hit today. We are encouraging people to be mindful of the rain and not drive in flooded water."

Ms Johnson said the significant rain in Warrnambool was quite unusual, with only a 2 per cent chance such heavy rain would fall each year.

"There was flash flooding, and they got a wind gust of 93 km/h. There were reports of hail from nearby Port Fairy," she said.

"Obviously Warrnambool did get a lot of storm activity, and they were particularly severe storms. It was pretty much a once in 50 years rain rate."

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2021-01-03 00:17:00Z
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