Australia Weather News

An "unusual" upper-low pressure system is driving heavy rainfall that has battered north-eastern and eastern parts of Victoria since yesterday, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says. 

The Bureau has issued a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall in large parts of central and east Gippsland.  

An earlier emergency warning has now been downgraded to advice.

The BOM is warning flash flooding is possible throughout the day.

BOM meteorologist Lincoln Trainor said parts of East Gippsland received heavy rainfall.

At Mount Moornappa 107.8 millimetres of rain was recorded in the 24 hours to 9am Monday.

The Bureau said 101.4mm of rain fell at Orbost in the same period. 

"We have an upper-low pressure system that's a bit unusual and it's slowly moving to the north and that's going to generate a lot of thunderstorm activity today as well, unfortunately," Mr Trainor said.

He said the storms had the potential to deliver up to 30 millimetres of rainfall in half an hour, creating the risk of local flash flooding.

The State Emergency Service has received more than 120 calls for help in the past 24 hours, with the majority for fallen trees or branches.

The SES said the majority of the calls were in the area surrounding Wodonga, near the New South Wales Border.

Near miss in lightning storm

Marlo Plains resident Josh Puglisi said lightning struck a tree next to his shed on Sunday soon after he left home.

His wife Carla called him saying it sounded like the house had been hit amid an intense electrical storm.

"She looked out the window and a huge tree just behind the shed got hit — struck, smashed in half and come down onto the ground," Mr Puglisi said.

"[The strike] was just next level volume and [left] all their ears ringing [and] the dog was under the couch.

"Half [the tree is] standing and the other half's on the ground."

Upper-low pressure system explained

The upper low-pressure system is a weather pattern higher in the atmosphere, from 6,000 to 12,000 metres above the surface.

"When we look at the weather on TV, we look at that weather chart and that weather chart is a chart at the surface, where we're standing. But then there's also weather all the way up in the atmosphere," Mr Trainor said.

"There's a low-pressure system there and that's driving a lot of instability and allowing us to have these thunderstorms." 

He said that weather was combining with south-easterly winds coming from Bass Strait.

"And those ingredients just generate continual storms and heavy rainfall and that's kind of the situation we have today," he said.