Wild weather hits northern Victoria

Refrigeration mechanic Nathan Cronyn, Kaarimba, said the incident, about 4pm on Sunday afternoon, lasted about 15 minutes.

"The wind just went in every direction - it wasn't just a wind blowing in, it was something else."

A Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman said it was probably a 'micro-burst' from one of the storms, which hit the area.

A microburst is a localized column of sinking air (downdraft) within a thunderstorm and is usually less than or equal to four kilometres in diameter.

"There were trees down everywhere, tin off sheds, gutters down, you name it - silos ripped out of the ground and blown away," Mr Cronyn said.

A damage estimate would not be known, until everything had been cleaned up.

"Fuel tanks were blown over and the front of one of the sheds is not there any more.

"Sheds are lying out in the paddocks."

He estimated the path of destruction to be about 300-400 metres - 'if that'.

Neighbour dairy farmer Mark Bryant confirmed the damage and said some of his corn may also have been flattened.

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Gina Lawrie said weekend rain followed last week's falls, in which Mildura broke a daily January rainfall record, when a storm dumped nearly 70mm on the town.

Ms Lawrie said a heavy thunderstorm complex moved over Mildura on Wednesday night, continuing until 11:30pm.

The BoM recorded 69 millimetres of rain fell in two hours, with 80.2mm in the 24-hours to 9am on Thursday.

Ms Lawrie said the humidity, showers and storm activity ramped up on Friday, continuing in the east through the weekend.

Read more: Mildura breaks rainfall record

A cold front was expected to push the humid warm air away 'once and for all' bringing cooler, and drier weather.

"This was caused by the remnants of ex-Tropical Cyclone Tiffany, which moved across central parts of the country and settled over SA, delivering them a lot of rainfall.

"We saw a continued stream of moist, tropical air being dragged down from the north of the continent, as this system crossed the state."

Cooler air was pushing in from the west, resulting in milder, settled conditions at least until the middle of next week.

The highest three day rainfall totals for Friday through to Sunday included 163 millimetres at Mt Buffalo Chalet, 148.4mm at Too Rour, 139mm at Lima East and 129mm at Strathbogie North.

Glenburn received 90mm with one Kyneton property recording 70mm.

Rain topped up gauges along the Murray River and north-east, for some impressive monthly totals.

Woolvie dairy farmer Carlie Barrie said the property received about 63mm since Thursday, last week, with storms over two days and the power out for 24 hours at one stage.

"We've got a lot of lucerne and chicory, that's been oversown in the pastures, so I guess that will bring that along, it will also keep the swampy country going, as well," she said.

"It was definitely what it needed, one of the summer crops was getting pretty thirsty."

Beef and sheep producer Liz Renkin, Lima, said the property appeared to be one the edge of the bad storms.

She said she'd heard Lurg 'copped a belting' late last week.

The property had received about 55mm in the last few days.

"It's very patchy, people a few kilometres away have had more, others haven't even had a drop.

"Underneath the dry feed there is certainly good green pick there now - the sheep don't like that long grass, so they are getting nice green pick coming through, for them."

In Gippsland, Stony Point dairy farmer Doug Hanks said when he was digging drains there was no water in the holes, but the soil was still moist down to a metre.

He said he'd received 30mm - 'it was a nice drop that greened things up'.

The rain followed an easterly wind, which dried everything out.

"At the moment, the cows are getting about 50 per cent of their ration out of the paddocks, and the other 50pc cent is being hand-fed.

He said he'd bought in grain and clover hay.

"We're feeding more grain in the bale, to take advantage of the milk price - there is margin to be made with grain and hay. The real value in the rain will depend when the next lot is."

Dairy and dairy beef farmer Matthew Coleman, Maffra, said he had 50mm for the weekend

"We were looking for it, the rain seems to keep coming, regularly - its been exceptional," Mr Coleman said.

"Around Maffra, its been a dream season, really."

He said 50 per cent of the property was under irrigation.

"The dryland hasn't really dried off, it's still green, so its beneficial for the whole enterprise, really."

Wimmera sheep and grains producer David Drage said his gauges on two different blocks recorded 29mm and 19mm of rain.

"It just proved it can rain again, 2021 was very close to being a drought for us - it was only that little one wet month, in September, which stopped it being a drought.

"It was probably the first significant rain event, since September last year."

It was a quiet time of the year, and he said he was 'just plodding away on odd jobs.

"Between 12 and about 5pm they are office jobs, the heat is lingering all day."

Mr Drage expected to start his spraying program shortly.

"On one half of the farm I am expecting from the end of this week, I will start spraying.

"I haven't seen anything green yet, but the assumption is there will be weeds germinating."

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