Heavy rainfall, snow and flooding expected for Victoria this week

The Bureau of Meteorology says a strong cold front will move across eastern Australia on Monday and Tuesday, bringing with it strong and gusty north-westerly winds.

BoM meteorologist Sarah Scully said there was a chance for severe winds which could "whip up" some dust storms particularly through parts of South Australia and north-western Victoria.

"On and behind that cold front we're forecasting widespread showers, small hail, isolated thunderstorms and that cold front will move eastwards through Victoria and New South Wales during Tuesday." Ms Scully said.

"Snow is expected to drop to low levels on Tuesday through parts of Tasmania, Victoria and alpine areas of New South Wales."

A complex low pressure area will follow the cold front and start to develop over southern NSW on Tuesday.

"That complex area of low pressure is then expected to move off the east coast of New South Wales where it's forecast to intensify during Wednesday into Thursday," Ms Scully said.

"We're forecasting a band of rain to develop right along that eastern seaboard, really stretching from Tasmania all the way up to south-eastern Queensland throughout the week."

The BoM said it was difficult to forecast where the heaviest rain would be because it was dependent on the "exacting positioning" of the predicted low pressure system.

"At the moment our models are giving different scenarios but at this stage it looks like the heaviest rainfall will be about eastern Victoria, Gippsland, and as well the south-east corner of New South Wales with the potential with that heavy rainfall for flooding," Ms Scully said.

"What's important is the soils are near saturated so that any rainfall that does occur ... is likely to have increased surface runoff and leaves them more prone to flooding."

Ms Scully said the cold front was "great news" for ski resorts because it would bring a combination of near or sub-zero temperatures and high precipitation between Wednesday and Friday.

"Which means that by the end of the week of between 50 centimetres up to 70cm of snow just in time for the opening of the snow season," Ms Scully said.

Ms Scully said the cold front would cross Victoria on Tuesday with snow likely to fall down to 900 metres, including parts of Western Victoria like The Grampians.