Heavy rain is set to continue today and into tomorrow

BoM senior meteorologist Rod Dickson said more than 100millimetres of rain had fallen between Myrtleford and Wangaratta, this morning. Other parts of the state had seen falls of between 20-50mm.

“We can still expect further heavy rain, throughout the day, with further falls of between 20-50mm, with isolated heavier totals of the order of 50-100mm still possible,” Mr Dickson said.

“The uncertainty is picking the exact location of those heavy falls, but the risk is pretty much statewide.”

Mr Dickson said thunderstorms and hail were also possible, in the north-west, with Swan Hill experiencing wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres an hour last night.

“It looks like, as we head into tonight, the heavy rain will move into the north-west of the state.”

The Bureau has issued a severe weather warning for the Central, Mallee, South West, Northern Country, North Central, North East, Wimmera and parts of West and South Gippsland forecast districts.

“The heavier rain will contract to southern parts of the state, and we will see some further falls of 20-50mm, across the south on Friday and possibly even some extreme rainfall totals about the Gippsland coast and Otways, where we could see totals in excess of 100mm.”

Mr Dickson said the low-pressure system, developing across Victoria from a trough, was being fed by very moist air, coming down from the tropics.

“It is really feeding on that moisture and giving us that heavy rain.”