Brace yourself Melburnians, wild winds are coming with a cold blast
A severe weather warning has been issued for parts of Melbourne with strong winds and thunderstorms expected to lash the state as a powerful cold front moves in.
Melburnians are being told to brace for the windiest weekend of the year so far.
Victoria's south-west will be hit by a cold and windy blast about midnight on Friday, before the system crosses the remainder of the state overnight.
Thunderstorms and damaging winds reaching speeds of up to 80km/hr are expected to lash Melbourne in the early hours of Saturday morning, while fierce weather will cause havoc in the Alpine region with gusts of up to 130km/h forecast for much of the weekend.
Bureau of Metrology senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said the worst hit parts of Melbourne on Friday evening will be the eastern suburbs towards the Dandenong Ranges where winds will reach speeds of up to 90km/h overnight.
Up to 8 millimetres of rain is expected to fall overnight marking the first decent drop of rain Melbourne has had in a month, Mr Carlyon said.
The cold front comes after an unseasonably warm start to April.
Thursday morning brought a confusing array of weather to the city including wild winds, a dust storm causing flight delays and temperatures as high as 30 degrees at 5am.
"We've had a long period this month of settled weather in the mid to high 20s but we now have a seriously cold front pushing cold air from the southern ocean over us," Mr Carlyon said.
"We're not likely to see the temperature return to high 20s until next spring. It’s going to be much cooler this weekend with temperatures only in the teens and showers are expected on Saturday morning and on Sunday."
The Victoria State Emergency Service has also warned winds may cause abnormally high tides across most coastal areas from Friday evening, including Port Philip Bay.
The Victorian SES has warned people to prepare for strong winds that may lead to large waves, move vehicles under cover away from trees, secure or put away loose items around the house, yard and balcony, and to keep clear of fallen power lines.
“We ask Victorians to be storm safe and prepare their homes now for strong winds and be alert to the potential for debris across roads when travelling during Saturday," Victorian SES chief of operations Tim Wiebusch said on Friday.
A top of 19 is predicted for Saturday and Sunday with the weather clearing to a sunny 20 degrees on Monday.