Wild storms and lightning strikes across Melbourne overnight caused major delays to motorists and public transport this morning, as well as stopping flights from Melbourne Airport and triggering power outages across the city.
Lightning strikes threw the train network into disarray. Train services have since resumed through the City Loop after signals were earlier disrupted at Flinders Street station, brining most loop services to a halt early on Monday.
Metro Trains warned major delays of up to 40 minutes across the network this morning because lightning strikes have damaged signal and trackside rail equipment.
Buses replaced trains on the Glen Waverley line, in Melbourne’s east, while other commuters faced delays of 45 to 60 minutes.
Melbourne recorded 25.6 millimetres of rain in 24 hours – the highest for the year. It sparked flooding across parts of the city, resulting in traffic chaos during the morning peak.
The SES had 36 calls for help for minor building damage since 6pm on Sunday.
Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said 12,000 homes and businesses were without power across metropolitan Melbourne.
"All four of the power companies have got outages of some kind," Mr Lapsley told Fairfax Radio.
"It looks like most of it has been caused by direct lightning impacts."
Lightning strikes also temporarily stopped planes from taking off or landing at Melbourne Airport on Monday morning.
Melbourne Airport spokeswoman Anna Gillett said there were delays because lightning was still being detected close to the airport.
"We are continuing to have to remove people from the tarmac due obviously to safety reasons," she said.
However, she recommended people still come to the airport as normal.
Lightning is also thought to have been the cause of a house fire in Melbourne’s inner south east at 2am – after a burning tree fell onto the property.
Shaken awake from a lightning strike, the family of five escaped their home after smelling smoke, then alerted their neighbours.
Fire crews worked for two hours before they could bring the fire under control, but couldn’t save the house.
Residents from several homes were evacuated for more than two hours.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Stephen King said the first band of storms hit between 1am and 3am, followed by another at about 6am.
"We haven't had too much damage with them, which has been good," Mr King said.
The storms were expected to clear by 10am, he said.
"We had quite a lot of lightning come through and we've had some reports of damage from that," he said.
Melbourne is facing a top of 19 on Monday, with the chance of a thunderstorm in the morning.
Power outages have also affected thousands of homes in Adelaide, following a storm which struck South Australia about 7pm.
The Bureau of Meteorology reported almost 80, 000 lightning strikes during the storm front.
