Hailstones have battered western Victoria and left more than a thousand properties without power.
The cold front was expected to reach Melbourne on Monday night, but the weather bureau forecast thunderstorm activity would ease by the time it reached the city.
An icy blast of weather brought golf-ball sized hail stones to Mildura.Credit:Twitter
Hail of up to 5 centimeters in diameter was reported in Mildura about 4pm, the bureau said.
A severe weather warning remains in place for western parts of the state, with residents of Swan Hill, Horsham, Stawell and Ararat being alerted to the possibility of large hailstones, damaging wind and heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding.
“To have this intense thunderstorm act activity with up to five-centimetre, golf ball-size hail in late August is unusual,” the bureau’s Dean Narramore told Nine News.
There were wind gusts of up to 100km/h at Horsham and small hailstones and flash flooding were observed at Portland, he said.
About 1100 properties lost electricity because of the storm as of 5.30pm, according to a PowerCor and CitiPower spokesperson.
One of the worst hit areas was Kororoit in the southwest where 650 properties were without power, but the electricity was expected to be restored by 7pm.