By Ashleigh McMillan, Roy Ward and Angus Delaney
Hundreds of people required help and thousands are without power after thunderstorms hit much of Victoria on Sunday, damaging buildings and downing trees.
Thunderstorms reached Melbourne in the early evening, bringing lightning and heavy rain from 6.15pm. Storms later in the evening saw SES call-outs double to more than 400 in the three hours from 6pm to 9pm.
The SES had 261 calls for fallen trees, 130 for building damage and 39 for flooding as of 6am with Emerald (41 calls), Whitehorse (35 calls) and Bendigo (30 calls) the municipalities in need of most help.
But the wild weather dissipated overnight, with 471 call-outs total in the past 24 hours to 6am.
The Bureau of Meteorology has also cancelled a severe weather warning for people in East Gippsland, North East and West and South Gippsland districts, as winds eased over the alpine areas.
AusNet reported 24 unplanned outages, with 3000 customers impacted at 7.30am Monday in parts of Victoria’s north and east. In the state’s north and west, 686 CitiPower customers have unexpectedly lost power.
VicEmergency issued a watch and act warning for flash flooding in Bendigo’s CBD in the afternoon but later downgraded the incident to “threat is reduced”.
Resident Paul Pickford posted a video on social media showing hail setting off the car alarm on his ute.
Locals from Bendigo and surrounding towns published pictures of hail that appeared to be the size of 10¢ or 20¢ coins.
The Australia Cup soccer match between South Melbourne and Brisbane’s Olympic FC at Lakeside Stadium in South Melbourne was postponed for more than 30 minutes because of lightning strikes.
The Bureau of Meteorology had earlier warned that large hailstones were possible in the state.
On Sunday morning, the temperature reached an unseasonably warm 23 degrees in places such as Avalon.
Melbourne can expect a top temperature of 18 degrees on Monday, and a windy Tuesday hitting a high of 20 degrees.
Lightning strikes the city on Sunday evening as seen from Brighton.Credit: Kevin Troy
“It’s worth noting that we’re seeing continued showers and storms in the wake of the system, but the most intense impacts are likely to be along the line of the trough itself,” said the Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury on Sunday afternoon.
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