Victoria at risk of tornadoes as thunderstorms and giant hail lash Australia’s south-east | Australia weather

Severe thunderstorms with “giant hail” the size of golf balls, wild winds and heavy rainfall are lashing Australia’s south-east as a cold front tracks across the nation, bringing the risk of tornadoes to parts of Victoria.

Residents in Geelong and the Bellarine peninsula were being urged to brace for a “very dangerous” storm late Friday afternoon, with intense rainfall that could lead to “dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding”.

Flash flooding was also expected in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, including the airport, as thunderstorms moved east to south-east.

A senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, Angus Hines, said the focus of the thunderstorm outbreak on Friday afternoon was turning to south-eastern New South Wales, and parts of Tasmania and Victoria.

He said severe thunderstorms were bringing “heavy rain, damaging wind and large hail to many areas”, including Melbourne, where flash flooding was possible.

In Victoria on Friday, 26mm of rain was recorded in the inner Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick in the 30 minutes to noon, while Frankston received 35mm of rain in two hours.

“The rain is all being driven by a low-pressure area and a cold front, which are currently crossing southern regions and will continue to do so during Friday afternoon,” Hines said.

“We’ve seen some giant hail in the past couple of days for parts of Australia – we may see that replicated again this afternoon. Down in Victoria, severe storms could bring any of the three: the wind, the rain and the hail.”

A spokesperson for Victoria’s State Control Centre said emergency services had received 254 requests for assistance since 6pm on Thursday, including 99 for building damage and 86 for flooding. Frankston was the busiest unit, with 45 requests in the same time period.

“The risk of destructive winds, giant hail and intense rainfall continues, with the possibility of tornadoes potentially forming in this area for the upper north-east of the state,” the spokesperson said.

Over 3,000 homes and businesses in western Victoria were facing outages and while AusNet Services had restored power to some in the east of the state, it had extra crews ready for further disruptions.

Extensive damage to transmission towers between western NSW’s Buronga and Broken Hill had also left more than 1,600 without power, with some temporarily connected via backup generators.

Victoria’s State Emergency Service duty officer Shane McBride urged motorists to avoid unnecessary travel. “Anyone today who’s thinking of travelling around, it’s really about planning a trip [and] thinking about whether you need to be on the road at all,” he said.

Four severe thunderstorm warnings were in place for large parts of NSW, the ACT and Victoria on Friday afternoon, including Geelong and outer eastern and western Melbourne. Winds in excess of 125km/h and giant hail measuring 5cm or more in diameter were possible, Hines said, particularly in alpine regions.

Overnight, large parts of the country were hit with severe thunderstorms, including South Australia, southern parts of the Northern Territory, inland NSW and north-west Victoria. Weatherzone recorded more than 200,000 lightning strikes.

Port Pirie in SA was hit with winds up to 137 km/h, while Roxby Downs and Tarcoola observed winds of 113 km/h. Mount Horrocks was lashed with 36mm of rainfall in just one hour.

The bureau’s Miriam Bradbury said on Friday the cold front and low pressure system would move across the south-east, with “warm, humid, windy weather” increasing through the day.

Storms were most likely across central and south-west slopes in NSW and Victoria’s north-east, with destructive wind gusts in excess of 125 km/h possible.

Heavy rain on Phillip Island delayed the start of the MotoGP, with Friday’s session cancelled after a repeated deluge of rain on the track.

Bradbury said overnight the front would move off the east coast and take the bulk of severe weather offshore.

“Southern Victoria, Tasmania and eastern NSW will see easing showers during Saturday with gusty southerly winds at times, it will be a little cool through southern Victoria, but it will remain mild elsewhere,” Bradbury said.

“There is a slight chance of a thunderstorm through north-east NSW and south-east Queensland, but these are not expected to bring a lot of rain or become severe.”

Conditions would continue easing through the weekend. Sunday should be mostly dry and partly cloudy to sunny across the east and south-east.