Melbourne weather: BOM forecasts storms, flooding, power outages expected as Alpine snow falls

Updated

Victorians are being warned to expect flash flooding, infrastructure damage and power outages as storms intensify across the state.

Wind gusts across metropolitan Melbourne are expected to reach 100 kilometres per hour.

In the Alpine region, snow has fallen two months ahead of the official season and wind speeds of 120 kph per hour have been recorded.

Falls Creek, Kyneton, Ballarat, Geelong, Melbourne and Bacchus Marsh were singled out by the Bureau of Meteorology as the places that will be most affected.

Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the total amount of rainfall that could fall in the next 24 hours may be the equivalent of what you would normally see in a couple of weeks.

He said emergency services were monitoring the situation.

"There could be impacts; trees down, power could be out for some parts," he said.

"That's one of those things we have to deal with [when it happens] and we've certainly got our resources, SES in particular and fire services are ready to go to support the Victorian community."

The SES has so far responded to more than 200 calls for help, mainly for fallen trees on roads, building damage and minor flooding.

There have been reports of building damage in Ballarat, north west of Melbourne, including a tree which has crashed through the window of a house.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: April snow has fallen at Falls Creek (ABC News)

Snow has fallen in the high country, with Mount Hotham, Falls Creek and Mount Buller experiencing flurries. Some parts of Melbourne may receive hail.

Chris Hocking from Falls Creek said it got below zero degrees Celsius just after lunch.

"We saw some snow flakes appear from the sky at about 2:00pm and definitely some wild weather with it, strong winds and no doubt that's been so around the state," he said.

"The snow's likely to get quite intense tonight.

"Usually around autumn we start to see the first snow fall, we're still two months away from the start of the official snow season but it's still good to see the weather changing and people getting excited about the upcoming winter."

After a sunny day on Saturday, the state had a taste of things to come when a storm front passed from the south-west, bringing thunder and lightning to Geelong and Melbourne.

After a relatively balmy morning, the temperature was expected to plummet to winter-like conditions when the front moved across, dropping to the low to mid teens.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the central district would receive the most rain, with some isolated falls of up to 75mm expected in Melbourne.

"The heaviest rain is expected to develop in the south-west this afternoon before moving to central areas later in the afternoon before reaching the Gippsland area [on Monday]," Richard Carlyon from the BOM said.

"The central district will probably see the bulk of the rain today, with general falls of 20 to 50mm, with some isolated falls of 75mm in Melbourne. Particularly the eastern suburbs could face the brunt of that rainfall."

Topics: weather, vic

First posted