Yes, the rains are ‘ere! But it’s got nothing to do with Mccain’s super juicy corn.
Victoria is preparing for an ‘unprecedented’ weather event tonight. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning with up to three times the monthly average rainfall expected to bucket down over Melbourne, the state’s north and north-east.
“I don’t think I’ve seen such a deep low form over Victoria whilst we’ve got this moisture around,” said Senior forecaster Scott Williams.
“So to that extent we are a little bit in unchartered territory in terms of weather.”
Areas most likely to experience the full force of tonight’s deluge include Mildura, Horsham, Warnambool, Bendigo, Shepparton, Seymour, Maryborough, Ballarat, Geelong, Melbourne, Wodonga, Wangaratta, Traralgon and Bairnsdale.
A storm of this scale is in Australia’s south-east is said to have no historical equal.
“November traditionally is a thundery time. It’s our peak season for thunderstorms and we do get heavy rain but I’m talking heavy rain as 50, 60, maybe 100 millimetres,” Mr Williams said.
“When you’re talking 150, up to 300, millimetres in the ranges, that makes it unprecedented.”
The downpour will come after a month of some very uncommon Victorian weather conditions. It was as if “a switch flicked” after a cold and wet Melbourne Cup day.
Since then, Melbourne had experienced a record number of days over 30 degrees.
“Not only is it warm, it’s humid. So the ingredients for this coming rain event is tropical moisture that’s been pumped down across eastern Australia by north-easterly winds day after day for about two weeks,” Mr Williams said.
And with the rain comes danger.
Victorian SES deputy chief urged people not to enter floodwaters and avoid swollen rivers.
“You don’t know what’s mixing in those flood waters… and in particular we don’t want to see people driving into flash flood waters.”
“It only takes 15 centimetres to float a small car and see that end in danger.”
