Strong wind gusts are predicted to hit Melbourne later today. Source: News Limited
MELBOURNE is set for calmer and cooler conditions today after a storm front swept through the city last night.
Damaging winds and a brief burst of rain blew through Melbourne from 10pm to midnight, on a day dubbed “bizarre” by forecasters — even by the city’s standards — as the temperature also reached a muggy 25C just after 6pm.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said winds peaked in the city at 95km/h in St Kilda just before 8pm and 91km/h at Fawkner Beacon about 8.30pm before calming when a cool change hit at 10.30pm.
The change caused the temperature to drop “quite quicky” from 20C to 15C, Mr Carlyon said, before plunging to 12C after midnight.
The forecaster said strong winds were largely confined to the state’s alpine areas and east after midnight, with Mt Hotham being lashed by a 115km/h gust at 1.15am.
“Fresh, cooler westerly winds will be about today, but we’ve cancelled a severe weather warning (this morning) as the winds have moderated in all districts,” Mr Carlyon said.
The temperature was forecast to top a cooler 18C today with a few showers and cloudy conditions expected to linger.
The State Emergency Service responded to 78 calls for help between 3pm and 6am across the state, most of them coming from the metropolitan Melbourne area.
Fallen trees and minor building damage made up the bulk of their work, SES spokeswoman Kathryn Gould said.
“It’s been fairly minor and it looks like most jobs have been taken care of fairly quickly,” she said.
“It’s possible people will wake up to damage and we will get a few more calls.”
Ms Gould said it was a quieter night than initially expected.
Mr Carlyon said today was expected to be the coolest of the week before temperatures slowly increased to reach 25C by Saturday.
Another cool change was forecast bring the mercury back down to 20C on Sunday, he said.
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