Nearly 600 calls made to emergency services as wild weather hits state
Nearly 600 calls have been made to emergency services since midnight as wild winds and rain lash the state.
The State Emergency Service has fielded 570 incident reports about fallen trees, debris on the road and more than 100 calls about damage caused to buildings.
More than 280 of these calls are still live, with hardest hit suburbs including Whitehorse and Manningham in the east, and Frankston and Hastings in the Mornington Peninsula.
Calls to the emergency hotline have picked up over lunchtime on Saturday, said an SES State Control Centre spokesman.
There have been no reports of injuries.
A severe weather warning has been issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for the entire state, with winds forecast to reach up to 130km/h in the Alpine region.
A strong cold front has moved through Melbourne and across the state, hitting the city before 1pm Saturday with 11.2 millimetres of rain - one of the most severe areas for rainfall in the metropolitan area, with most areas seeing rainfall ranging between five and 10 millimetres.
Strong gusts of wind have lashed St Kilda, with a strong western wind gust of 97km/h hitting the bayside area before 1pm.
The strongest winds occurred at Aireys Inlet, which faced 101km/h gusts, and Mount Gellibrand, where 108km/h winds swept through the area on Saturday morning.
Winds are expected to ease in most areas during Saturday evening, although strong to gale force winds up to 130km/h are forecast for the Alpine region in the afternoon and evening.
The heaviest rainfall has so far been in south-western Victoria, with 28.2 millimetres of rain in Mount Williams around 9am and 25 millimetres in Mount Macedon.
"As we start to move towards the later afternoon and evening, the risk of damaging gusts will contract to the coast and the shower activity should also start to dry up as well," said Chris Godfred, senior forecaster at the bureau.
Melbourne will drop to a minimum of 19 degrees on Saturday night, with a low to medium chance of a passing shower.
The risk of damaging winds will be confined to coastal Victoria and the Central Ranges at night.
Fresh and gusty winds are forecast for Melbourne on Sunday, but they will not be strong or gale force winds.