In Brief
- Storms have lashed Victoria since Tuesday afternoon.
- Severe storm, flood and weather warnings remain in place.
Severe thunderstorms, heavy rain and damaging winds are lashing large areas of Victoria, with authorities urging residents to seek shelter in the dangerous conditions.
Thousands of homes across Melbourne are without power following storms across the city on Tuesday afternoon. The State Emergency Service (SES) is responding to hundreds of calls for help after strong winds and rain damaged homes across the city.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for the northern, eastern and southern suburbs, with some residents warned to remain indoors.
Thousands of households across the city were left without power, while rivers including the Werribee, Yarra and Bunyip overflowed.
While the worst of the storms have passed over the city, showers and storms are expected to return throughout the evening.
A severe thunderstorm warning is in effect for parts of Victoria's Central, East Gippsland, Mallee, Northern Country, North Central and North East districts. Residents are advised to expect severe storms and heavy rainfall. The Bureau of Meteorology reports that damaging winds and large hailstones are still a possibility.
The bureau asked residents of Seymour, Castlemaine, Kyneton, Kilmore and surrounds to stay in doors, with residents urged to remain indoors as intense rainfall, damaging winds and life-threatening floods lashed the region.
"You are in danger," Victoria's SES said to people in those regions.
They received nearly 230 requests for assistance across the day, with 56 still active on Tuesday evening, a spokesperson told AAP.
More than half were related to building damage or fallen trees, while 70 resulted from floods.
"These thunderstorms are very dangerous," Vic Emergency said.
Nearly 27mm of rain was recorded at Kyabram, about 200km north of Melbourne, in the 30 minutes leading to 6.45pm.
It followed an earlier warning to people in areas including Glen Waverley, Ringwood, Mill Park, Bundoora, Dandenong, Belgrave, Berwick and the area east and south of Pakenham towards Koo Wee Rup and Poowong to move indoors immediately.
A flood watch was in place for Central and Eastern Victoria on Tuesday afternoon, including river catchments in the Melbourne area.
A warning was issued for towns within fire-affected grounds, with authorities warning burnt land does not absorb water effectively, meaning runoff can occur quickly and without warning.
The drenching in the south comes as Australia's parched interior braced for wild weather from a storm band lingering over the nation's usually dry, red heart.
Rail services have been affected, roads are cut off and freight deliveries stranded as hundreds of millimetres of rain inundate multiple states.
A slow-moving tropical low is causing havoc across central Australia, with heavy falls and damaging winds reported across the Northern Territory.
Some of the heaviest falls from Monday through to early Tuesday were in the NT, with 79mm at the Granites in the Tanami Desert.
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