Victoria’s wild spring weather will continue, with damaging winds and thunderstorms forecast for Monday after much of the state was lashed on the weekend by severe wind gusts.
The State Emergency Service received 549 calls in the 24 hours to 5pm on Sunday, over half of them for fallen trees, including trees blocking roads and damaging homes.
Damaging winds are expected to hit Melbourne again on Monday. Credit:Jason South
Fifty of the calls for help related to floods, with the highest number, 12, at Eltham, in Melbourne’s north-east.
Last night, the SES listed more than 60 flood warnings on its website including Watch and Act notices for the Barmah and Lower Moira areas in Victoria’s far north, for the Mitta Mitta River at Tallandoon, and for the King River downstream of Lake William Hovell.
At Melbourne Airport, gusts of up to 102km/h were recorded at 8pm on Saturday and 59km/h was recorded at 4.30pm on Sunday.
The wet and windy weather prompted the cancellation of the Illuminate the River festival, in Melbourne’s inner north-west, mid-performance on Saturday.
Concert-goers at Mt Duneed Estate extracted bogged cars from the mud with the help of tractors on Sunday morning following Crowded House’s performance at A Day On The Green on Saturday.
The venue posted online that organisers expected the night to be wet, “but definitely not to the extent that it became”.
At 5pm on Sunday, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning, with cold fronts expected to cause damaging winds for most of Victoria on Monday, except for the far north-west including Mildura and Ouyen.
“Damaging west to south-westerly winds averaging 50 to 70km/h, with peak gusts to 110km/h, are likely along much of the Central and Gippsland districts, including Melbourne, especially near the coast or bayside with the front,” the bureau’s website said.
Those areas can also expect squally conditions to develop during the day with damaging gusts of up to 100km/h, especially with showers or thunderstorms.
“Winds are expected to moderate late Monday, although Central and Gippsland coastal locations will remain a risk Monday night,” the bureau’s website said.
Locations forecast to be affected by wild weather include Melbourne, Horsham, Warrnambool, Bendigo, Shepparton, Seymour, Maryborough, Ballarat, Geelong, Wodonga, Wangaratta, Traralgon and Bairnsdale.
The SES advised people to avoid travel where possible, secure loose items around homes and be aware of hazards such as floodwater and fallen trees.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Ilana Cherny said Melbourne wasn’t rid of the cold and rainy weather just yet, with the possibility of showers, thunderstorms and even hail on Monday. “And we’re also looking at quite windy conditions continuing,” she said.
She said a series of cold fronts passed through the state over the weekend, “that really began on Saturday in the west, where we saw some pretty extensive thunderstorms and severe phenomena like large hail and damaging winds”.
“We’re expecting more windy conditions through to Monday, particularly as showers and storms move through,” Cherny said.
SES state duty officer Andrew Fagan said damage from Saturday night’s storm was widespread, with crews focused on Eltham, in Melbourne’s north-east, and Sunbury in the north-west.
“Even small country towns areas like Woomelang, up in the far north-west, and then Kaniva near the South Australian border — they still had eight and 10 jobs respectively, and for a small country town, that’s actually fairly huge,” he said.
Fagan said the biggest concern was continued reports of people driving into floodwater, with one person needing to be rescued at Port Campbell on Saturday night and another in Heathcote on Sunday morning.
“One gentleman today was in his car with a rottweiler, there was a big flooded creek and his car was floating, with water waist-deep through the vehicle,” he said.
“It’s just luck that we’re not seeing people killed, versus good management.
“Don’t drive through, play, ride, swim or even think about going in floodwater. The risk to yourself is huge, but also the risk to the emergency responders helping you is massive.”
Melbourne is expected to reach a top of 14 degrees on Monday and can expect between 4 and 6 millimetres of rain. The bureau says there is an 80 per cent chance of rain, most likely in the afternoon and evening. There is also the chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe with damaging wind gusts.
Possible showers and top temperatures in the teens are due to continue on Tuesday and Wednesday until there is a dry top of 21 degrees expected for Thursday and a sunny forecast maximum of 26 degrees on Friday.
Cherny said: “After Tuesday, there will be a bit of an easing trend ... By Thursday and Friday, we’ll see things starting to warm up a little bit, with a hint of that spring weather which people look forward to.”
Victorians can call 132 500 for flood and storm assistance, but any urgent emergency calls should still be made to triple-zero.
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2022-11-20 07:46:09Z
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