Melbourne is being battered by severe and damaging winds in the lead up to the peak hour commute.
VicRoads has reduced the speed limit on the West Gate Bridge to 60km/h due to the high winds.
The Bureau of Metorology issued a severe weather warning on Tuesday for large parts of Victoria, including Melbourne, Gippsland, the Wimmera and around Seymour and Warrnambool, predicting gusts of up to 100km/h.
Bureau duty forcaster Matthew Michael said the outer suburbs of Melbourne and elevated areas would be the parts of the city worst hit by the winds.
He said the winds would be at their strongest between 3pm and 5pm, “when people are driving home.”
It is raining south west of Melbourne and the wet weather is quickly approaching the city – forecasters say it is likely to start raining about 3pm and are predicting a 5ml to 10ml downpour.
Winds reached 78km/h at the Melbourne Airport on Tuesday afternoon and 111km/h at Mt Gellibrand, near Colac, south west of Melbourne.
State Emergency Services spokeswoman said they had received calls for fallen trees and tiles flying off roofs.
Just before 3pm the SES had attended 20 calls for help in the Melbourne metropolitan area and 18 calls in the south western district, which included Geelong, Warrnambool and Colac.
This story first appeared in The Age.
