Day turned into night in minutes as a severe storm ripped through Melbourne on Thursday morning, delivering downpours and flash flooding.
There was also an early morning deluge in Canberra, with further warnings for both cities – as well as Sydney – throughout Thursday.
“I had to pull over because my windscreen wipers couldn’t keep up with the rain – the lightning every three or four seconds was bang, bang, bang – it’s pretty full on,” one caller told Melbourne’s 3AW.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Melbourne just after 8am, as a surprise storm cell smashed Geelong and surrounds and moved towards the city.
The sky darkened and up to 13 millimetres of rain fell across Melbourne in the next hour, just in time for the morning peak hour.
Peter Phoebe said he raced the storm to work in Southbank.
“As I was walking to it at about 8.30, the skyline looked like the end of day scene in Ghostbusters,” he told the Nine network.
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Powercor said electricity had been cut to more than 12,000 homes and businesses after more than 10,000 lightning strikes hit poles and lines.
By 10am, the bureau said the risk to the Melbourne area had eased. But early on Thursday afternoon it issued new storm warnings for other parts of Victoria, including Bendigo, Shepparton, Euroa, Rochester, Mansfield and Mount Buller.
“Severe thunderstorms are continuing ahead of an upper trough, with large hail possible from the thunderstorm south-west of Shepparton,” BOM tweeted.
Canberra, meanwhile, was also battered by thunder and lightning early on Thursday. The national capital had 15.4 millimetres of rain between 9-10.30am when the storm hit.
The Bureau of Meteorology had forecast a “chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe”, but did not issue a severe weather warning.
Sydney could also be in the firing line, with severe thunderstorms forecast for NSW.
Shortly before 4pm, the BOM issued a warning for a storm at Colo, north-west of Sydney.
“A surface trough lying through central and eastern parts of the state is generating thunderstorms this afternoon, with the chance of severe storms into this evening due to an approaching upper level trough,” it said.
“Isolated severe storms are also approaching the NSW/Victorian border.
Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding, damaging winds and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations that may be affected include Gosford, Orange, Bathurst, Katoomba, Parkes and Albury.”
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Outside of storms, the harbour city is enjoying a spectacular start to autumn. It is on track to register its warmest March in 165 years of records.
“Two periods of very hot weather and an absence of any significant cold spells have made the last few weeks to feel more like the middle of summer than the start of autumn in Sydney,” forecaster Weatherzone wrote on Thursday.
“The city has exceeded 36 degrees twice so far this month, a feat that has only happened during March on one other occasion since 1859.”
