“Residents are advised to avoid the wind gusts before the storm – go inside and close your windows and doors before and during the storm,” she said.
“Our hospitals are experiencing significant demand due to COVID-19, so it’s important you stay well.”
An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said emergency services hadn’t been fielding more calls from people having trouble breathing.
Before hitting southwest Victoria, the low-pressure trough ripped through South Australia, with severe storms and reports of large hail in Adelaide earlier on Thursday.
The Bureau of Meteorology reported top wind gusts of 115km/h at Hopetoun in the state’s Mallee region on Thursday evening just before 7pm.
A warning for severe thunderstorms remained in place for much of Victoria’s west on Thursday afternoon and the bureau warned of damaging winds and large hailstones in the west of the state on Thursday evening.
Among the locations predicted to be affected were Mildura, Horsham, Bendigo and Maryborough.
“An actual low-pressure system is developing on that trough and deepening over the course of [Thursday night] or later [on Thursday],” senior bureau forecaster Christie Johnson said.
Loading
“At the moment, obviously we’ve got severe thunderstorms over the west of the state, and the most likely severe phenomenon with those are damaging wind gusts and large hail.”
Ms Johnson said, unlike other storms, this weather system was tapping into moisture from the tropics.
“It’s actually bringing down tropical air in the northerly winds ahead of it; that increased moisture means it feels quite humid ahead of the trough, so people might be noticing that, but that is also adding to the instability, so that’s why we’re getting some of these big storms, which are perhaps more like the sort of storms we might get over Queensland,” she said.
A separate severe weather warning for damaging winds applied across much of the state, including Melbourne.
The bureau warned a low-pressure system was set to intensify over southwestern Victoria on Thursday afternoon, resulting in a “vigorous” northwest to westerly flow across the state before it contracted to the state’s south-east throughout Friday.
Winds were expected to average between 60km/h and 70km/h, with peak gusts of between 90km/h and 100km/h in the west late on Thursday evening.
Severe weather conditions are expected to persist in Victoria through to Friday. Credit:Joe Armao
The damaging winds were forecast to extend east into Victoria’s southern and alpine regions in the early hours of Friday, with peak wind gusts of up to 120km/h expected over the eastern ranges.
“That’s going to be more into [Thursday] evening, we’ll see the winds picking up as that low deepens … over a broader area [on Thursday evening] in the west and then as the low tracks across southwestern, those strong winds will extend across central and eastern parts in the early hours of [Friday],” Ms Johnson said.
The storm front that started moving through the state’s west from about 12.30pm on Thursday crossed over Melbourne about 5.30pm.
The city was forecast to see winds of up to 55km/h on Thursday evening, and 60km/h on Friday morning.
The bureau also issued a weather warning for heavy rain and possible flash flooding in the state’s southwest from Thursday afternoon, with Edenhope, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Portland, Colac and Lake Bolac among the areas likely to be affected.
Winds were expected to ease off over the state’s western districts by sunrise on Friday, and, in central and eastern parts of the state, by Friday afternoon. The low-pressure was then going to track down through southwestern Victoria, across the Bass Strait and down to Tasmania’s south-east.
Ms Johnson said that while there would be showers in the south on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning that would ease by later on Saturday.
For Sunday, forecasters expected a morning shower on the coast, and mostly fine and sunny weather conditions after that.
Get a daily update on the climate summit that will shape our future. Sign up to our Clear Air newsletter here.
Geelong braces for large hail as fresh storms forecast to hit Melbourne
Source: Philippines Alive
