By Alex Crowe
Record rainfall caused flash flooding in several regional towns, hundreds called for help after downpours across Melbourne and large parts of Gippsland were on alert for floods in coming days after what has been one of Victoria’s wettest Christmas Days on record.
Storm conditions brought hail to Kyneton in the Macedon Ranges on Christmas Eve, badly damaging a local bowls club. Emergency services responded to 170 calls for help in the Loddon Mallee region overnight to Christmas morning.
A Japan Airlines plane was struck by lightning en route to Melbourne Airport on Sunday. Another airline’s flight from Queenstown to Melbourne was diverted to Hobart due to the storm.
In regional Victoria, Wedderburn residents reported floodwater inundating homes as heavy rainfall blocked roads and bought down trees on Christmas Day.
Floodwaters were expected to recede in the town, located 217 kilometres north of Melbourne, as conditions eased late on Monday. The flood warning for nearby St Arnaud remained in place on Monday afternoon.
Wedderburn resident Maddison Postle said her family had been spared from flooding because their home was on top of a hill, but some of her neighbours weren’t so lucky.
“Ours has been a bit better than some of our friends who have had their homes flooded this morning,” Postle told Nine News.
“They’ve had water go through their homes.”
Postle said a clean-up around Wedderburn was under way, after rain began easing on Monday afternoon.
“I don’t think anyone in town was really prepared for the amount that we did end up getting,” she said.
“There’s quite a bit of debris ... quite a bit of water erosion around.”
Emergency services responded to more than 640 calls for assistance across Victoria in the 24 hours to 3pm on Christmas Day. The majority of call-outs were for fallen trees, followed by reports of caved in roofs, structural damage to buildings and floodwater inundating homes.
A low-pressure weather system that formed north of the Mallee region and moved to the east of the state brought close to 100 millimetres of rain in 24 hours from Christmas Eve. Dunolly recorded 96. 2 millimetres in 24 hours, a 142-year rainfall record for the town.
The eastern suburbs of Melbourne received the heaviest downfalls for the city on Christmas Day, with 30 millimetres in Ferny Creek and 25 millimetres in Keysborough over six hours. About 10 millimetres of rain fell across the city centre from 9am to 3pm on Monday.
The most rain recorded in Melbourne on Christmas Day was 48.6 millimetres in 1988, the Bureau of Meteorology data shows.
Meteorologist Lincoln Trainer said showers forecast for Monday evening could mean Melbourne could still reach that record.
“We’ve got parts of Melbourne forecast for up to 40 millimetres, so well within striking distance,” he said.
Trainer said Monday’s top of 21 degrees was five degrees cooler than the past 10 Christmas Days in Melbourne.
“Only 3 per cent of our past Christmas Days in Melbourne have had more than 10 millimetres of rain, so this is unusual,” he said.
While conditions eased in the afternoon, Melbourne was forecast for additional showers and a possible thunderstorm on Monday evening. The bureau forecast falls of between five and 15 millimetres in the 24 hours from 10pm.
The Boxing Day Test will go ahead despite the rain. Australia is set to take on Pakistan at the MCG for the first day of the Test on Tuesday.
“We monitor the weather closely and preparations align to forecasted conditions,” a Melbourne Cricket Club spokesperson said. “We prepare the playing arena weeks in advance and have one of the best drainage systems in the country.”
Trainer said Melbourne would likely experience some isolated showers on Tuesday morning, with a risk of a thunderstorm in the afternoon.
“So what does that mean for the Boxing Day Test? It means that there could be some disruptions, but they will still get some play in,” he said.
“We should get some opportunity for uninterrupted play from Wednesday afternoon, and then it’s mostly dry Thursday and Friday.”
A severe thunderstorm warning was in place for parts of the state’s north and most of Gippsland overnight on Monday. Residents were warned large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and damaging winds were possible over several hours.
Further widespread rainfall totals of 10 to 50 millimetres were expected in parts of the state during Monday and into Tuesday morning, with isolated heavier falls of up to 80 millimetres possible.
The heaviest falls are more likely to be experienced from late Monday afternoon as the rain moves over the north-east and eastern river catchments during Tuesday and into Wednesday.
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