A tornado touches down in Moama, Victoria as meteorologists warn of wild weather still to come.
The wild weather due to hit Melbourne late this afternoon has left a trail of overflowing rain gauges in its path, according to the weather bureau.
The State Emergency Service was on high alert today after the issuing of wild-weather warnings.
An SES spokesman said 90 calls for emergency help had been received by lunchtime, many of them related to flash flooding.
Duty forecaster Richard Russell said Geelong and parts of the Mornington Peninsula had recorded light falls and several towns - including Apollo Bay - had experienced periods of torrential rain throughout the morning.
‘‘We’ve had 92 millimetres at Weeaproinah (north of Cape Otway), 82 millimetres at Mount Sabine, and 60 millimetres at Apollo Bay,’’ Mr Russell said.
‘‘There’s been some very strong wind gusts. We just had a 139 kmh wind gust on Mount William (in the Grampians). Certainly the elevated parts of the western districts and exposed coastal locations have been buffeted by gale force and gusty winds.’’
Melburnians can still expect the worst of weather to wash over the city in time for the journey home from work.
‘‘Most Melburnians will notice the patchy rain arriving early this afternoon,’’ Mr Russell said.
‘‘It will become more consistent during the middle of the afternoon, and it will really start raining late this afternoon or tonight. At that stage the winds will also shift around to stronger southerlies.’’
‘‘There’s quite a lot of flooding reported down around Koroit (near Warrnambool).
‘‘We’ve seen flooding in Camperdown. A tree in Cobden fell over, causing building damage and letting water into a home, and there have been a couple of reports of flooding in Ararat."
As Victoria braced for torrential rain and fierce winds today, the Murray River border town of Moama endured a tornado that ripped the roof off at least one home and sucked trees into the sky.
Areas around the Otways, south-west of Melbourne, have received well above 60 millimetres of rain in the past 24 hours, causing landslides and flash flooding.
Port Fairy, near the South Australian border, has had 67 millimetres in the past 24 hours, including 37 millimetres since midnight, which followed heavy rain across parts of the state's north-east.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued flood warnings for many rivers, including the Werribee, Maribyrnong and Yarra catchments.
In Moama, on the Victoria-NSW border, Leading Senior Constable Allan Foskett said he was sitting in his lounge room about 5pm when he looked out window "to see a big, black cloud to the north which was behaving in an unusual manner".
"I went out the front to have a look and ... I could hear this enormous roar and could see debris being scooped up into the sky. It was just exactly like what you see in America," he told The Age.
"There was debris up to 100 foot in the air, including a tree. It was unbelievable."
Leading Senior Constable Foskett said the twister first touched down about 500 metres from his front door.
He retreated inside to monitor the rolling cloud from the safety of his living room and warned his wife they may have to shelter in the hallway "because it has no windows".
"It started to move off the west. It hit ground at least two more times and we saw a heap of debris go up into the air."
Local resident Mark Langenbacher was not so lucky. His street, Lingnum Lane, was one of the worst hit by the tornado.
"I heard this sound like a jet engine and looked out the window and saw this giant whirly-whirly in the trees," said Mr Langenbacher, 52.
"I went out to look at it and it started coming towards me and I rushed inside, but I could barely close the front door the wind was so strong."
From inside his house, he saw a giant oak tree demolished, the neighbour’s pine tree ripped out and their backyard trampoline thrown across the road.
"After it passed, I went outside and saw some tin roof on the ground and when I looked up at my roof, it was gone," Mr Langenbacher said. "The whole thing was quite bizarre."
The tornado was preceded by two hours of heavy hail.
Elsewhere, Victoria's west could receive "up to 100 millimetres of rain in less than 24 hours", the bureau warned.
But the front has already created drama for the SES.
A small landslip at Skene's Creek, in the Otway ranges near Apollo Bay, is believed to have spilled mud onto a road but did not affect homes.
An SES spokesman said a massive amount of rain had fallen on a stretch of coastline in the state's west overnight and there were no sign conditions would ease.
"It looks like the worst of the weather (was) hitting that part of the state (at daybreak). The flash flooding in Port Fairy was caused by about 67 millimetres of rain falling on that area ... which is an awful lot given we had six millimetres in the city yesterday, and it felt like a wet day."
He said 5000 SES volunteers were on high alert as the heavy rain moved slowly across the state, accompanied by potentially damaging winds.
"We are expecting the rain which has hit Port Fairy to move across most of the state and probably arrive in metropolitan areas a bit later on, possibly around mid to late-afternoon."
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