As Melbourne basks in sunshine, winds and storms are gathering strength in south-west and central Victoria, ready to batter the state with gusts of up to 110km/h on Monday night and thunderstorms on Tuesday.
The Bureau of Meteorology released a severe weather warning for most of Victoria on Monday, forecasting a strong cold front reaching the western border of the state about midnight, and moving across Victoria on Tuesday.
Senior forecaster Phil King said northerly winds of 50 to 60km/h are forecast for late Monday morning.
“Winds are likely to strengthen overnight towards 110km/h across the southern and mountain areas, and spread through the state’s east during Tuesday,” Mr King said.
At 9am Monday, winds reached 55km/h at Tullamarine, and will continue to increase into the afternoon.
Duty forecaster Stuart Coombe said metropolitan Melbourne would start to see “fairly blustery wind gusts reaching 90km/h later in the afternoon”, but that the city would be safe from rain and thunderstorms until Tuesday morning or early afternoon.
“We will probably start to see the strongest winds from 1pm until 3pm today in the Dandenong Ranges and down along the bay,” Mr Coombe said.
“The winds will gradually extend through metro Melbourne in the following next few hours from 3pm.”
Outer northern suburbs, Tullamarine and any areas where the wind is blowing off the bay – such as the Peninsula and Frankston – as well as elevated areas are most at risk of wild winds, Mr Coombe said.
The bureau is warning people to put away loose objects to minimise them flying in the wilds winds.
Melburnians will be able to enjoy a sunny 22 degrees until clouds cover the sky in the afternoon, as well as a relatively warm night with temperatures hovering in the mid-teens.
“Because of the strong winds overnight, it will be a warm night, down to only 15 degrees and then 19 on Tuesday afternoon,” Mr Coombe said.
From Thursday, a second front is forecast to bring colder conditions to Victoria and Melbourne, with the mercury falling back to 15 and 16 degrees.
