Floods and fires after a week of wild weather in Victoria

FLOODS and lightning-sparked bushfires have been the bookends of a week of wild weather in Victoria.

Wild weather lashes Victoria

FLOODS and lightning-sparked bushfires have been the bookends of a week of wild weather in Victoria.

Vicious thunderstorms brought little in terms of rain but fierce winds caused damage across the state in the middle of last week.

Lightning sparked small fires in many areas.

The weekend’s rain has hit fruit crops in the north of the state with growers now nervously checking for mildew, rot and splitting.

Some enormous rain totals or more than 150mm in some areas brought localised flooding after widespread rain on the weekend.

Milk tankers found it difficult to negotiate sodden tracks in Gippsland for pick ups at the weekend.

Southern Rural Water was forced to release water from Lake Glenmaggie yesterday which caused some minor flooding after almost 200mm fell in little more than a day.

There was also minor flooding in the Thomson and Snowy rivers.

Gippsland’s heavy rain continued with some astonishing weekend totals.

Sale recorded 109mm, Stratford 135mm, Traralgon 74mm, Valencia Creek 82mm, Bairnsdale 88mm, Balook 152mm, Briagolong 144mm, Cowwarr Weir 194mm, Glenaladale 101mm, Glenmaggie Creek 156mm, Latrobe Valley 57mm, Bonang 93mm, Bruthen 84mm, Buchan 90mm, Lakes Entrance 70mm and Orbost 69mm.

The week’s rain totals in the Mallee, where almost all farmers have finished harvesting, ranged from 22mm at Berriwillock to 21mm at Annuello and 19mm at Murrayville.

Ultima had 10mm and Woomelang 4mm for the week.

The big falls continue to elude the Wimmera with 19mm at Yanac North, 14mm at Dimboola and 12mm at Longerenong the best for the week.

Nhill recorded 10mm, Apsley 12mm and Rupanyup 10mm.

Central Victoria largely missed the big totals although Boort had 79mm with 28mm at Echuca, 35mm at Rochester, 22mm at Dookie and 15mm at Inglewood.

In the west, Ararat had 21mm for the week.

Beaufort had 14mm, Cavendish 12mm, Skipton 15mm, Apollo Bay 12mm and Benwerrin had a mighty 96mm.

In other totals Mt Sabine had 83mm, Casterton 9mm, Coleraine 15mm, Dartmoor 13mm, Hawkesdale 13mm, Merino 16mm, Portland 17mm and Ricketts Marsh15mm.

Bacchus Marsh had 30mm on the weekend although irrigation allocations are still at 70 per cent, Ballan had 63mm, Blackwood 36mm, Fiskville 70mm, Meredith 42mm and Toolern Vale 69mm.

Falls ranged between 30mm-50mm in the northeast for the week with 40mm at Albury 74mm at Dartmouth, 48mm at Myrtleford, 88mm at Tatong, 34mm at Violet Town.

The week’s totals on the ranges totalled more than 100mm with 110mm at Mt Hotham and Falls Creek.