The first of a series of cold fronts will arrive with wild winds and rain on Wednesday night, plunging Melbourne into the true depths of wintry weather into next week.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting gusts up to a damaging 90km/h through Melbourne overnight and up to 120km/h in alpine areas.

Melburnians can expect strong winds and rain from Wednesday afternoon

The wind will ease by Thursday but remain chilly enough to send the day-time 'feels like' temperature into single digits over the coming days and into the weekend.

Melburnians can expect between two to five millimetres of rain overnight on Wednesday with scattered showers to hang around for days.