Victoria weather: thousands lose power as wild thunderstorm sweeps state

Heavy rain, strong winds and large hailstones reported in parts of state as BoM warns of potential life-threatening flash flooding

More than 40,000 Victorian homes and businesses were without power and some would remain in the dark overnight as wild thunderstorms swept across the state, causing flight delays at Melbourne airport.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued on Tuesday afternoon for Bendigo, Maryborough, Castlemaine, Kyneton, Ballarat, Bellarine Peninsula and greater Melbourne.

The Bureau of Meteorology cancelled the warning for greater Melbourne on Tuesday evening, saying the “immediate threat” had passed but “the situation will continue to be monitored and further warnings will be issued if necessary”.

The BoM warning remained in place for people in the northern country and parts of the central, Mallee, north central, north east and west and south Gippsland districts.

There were reports of large hail around Bendigo, as well as rainfall totals of 20mm in 30 minutes at Eversley, 30mm in 30 minutes at Mount Buninyong and 54mm in 60 minutes at Coldstream.

A wind gust of 104km/h was also recorded in Wangaratta, near the New South Wales border, and another of 92km/h at the Eildon Fire Tower.

Thunderstorm cells were tracking south-east on Tuesday evening and could lead to life-threatening flash flooding, the BoM warned.

A watch and act alert encouraged campers and residents in exposed parts of Echuca, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Bright, Mansfield and Mt Buller to take shelter and move to higher ground.

“Park your car undercover and away from trees,” the BoM cautioned.

“Stay inside if conditions outside appear dangerous.”

About 19,000 power customers across central and western Victoria were still off the grid as of 7pm on Tuesday after the storms brought down trees and damaged the network.

Powercor, which supplies power to 1.2m Victorian homes and businesses, said a significant amount of lightning had also impacted the grid and its crews were working to fix more than 200 faults.

“Ballarat and surrounding communities are the hardest hit areas, with around 13,000 customers without power,” a Powercor spokesperson said in a statement.

“Other areas impacted include Castlemaine, Bendigo, Hamilton, Ararat, Horsham and Maryborough, as well as some of the western suburbs of Melbourne.

“Our crews will continue to work to have power restored throughout the afternoon and evening, but given the volume of faults and the damage sustained, some customers will be without power overnight.”

Close to 20,000 customers with Ausnet, which supplies power to all of the state’s east and southeast as well as much of the north, were also without power as 6pm Tuesday.

“The most significant outages are in Wallan, Beveridge, Euroa, Wollert, Epping, Alexandra, Chirnside Park and Yea,” an AusNet spokeswoman said.

“Our crews are currently working to get the power back on as quickly and safely as possible

More than 2,000 power customers to Melbourne’s west and northwest were also experiencing outages late on Tuesday.

Flight delays at airport as lightning affects trains

Ground operations at Melbourne international airport were halted for more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon as lightning and heavy rain lashed the city, causing widespread flight delays that were expected to continue into the evening.

Wild weather hit the Melbourne metropolitan area at about 3pm, having already wreaked havoc across central and western Victoria.

While some inbound planes were still able to land, passengers were unable to board or disembark aircrafts, and ground crews were unable to load or unload baggage or conduct usual operations such as movement of aerobridges.

The halting of ground operations is a standard safety procedure whenever there is lightning within 5km of the airfield, a spokesperson for Melbourne airport said.

The safety measures affected all airlines operating out of the airport, the spokesperson said, with delays inevitable, and cancellations a matter for each individual airline to assess.

One inbound international flight, coming from New Zealand, was rerouted to Adelaide, where it was expected to refuel and return to Melbourne.

Ground crews were back on the airfield by 4.30pm and flights began departing again.

Buses were replacing trains along the Craigieburn line from Broadmeadows to Craigieburn due to a lightning strike affecting equipment.

Metro Trains warned the replacement buses could take up to an hour to arrive while noting trains were operating as normal from Flinders Street to Broadmeadows.

The BoM meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said the risk of severe thunderstorms would persist into Wednesday but would contract into eastern Victoria and south-eastern NSW.

“As we go towards Thursday, the heavier rainfall is going to move up the NSW coast with the risk of storms continuing,” she said.

“However, inland areas will see much patchier falls than they’re expecting today.”