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Winds peaking at over 100km/h have left thousands without power, forced the closure of some of Melbourne’s busiest train lines and downed trees, with poor weather expected to persist until Tuesday morning.
Victoria State Emergency Service said it had received 740 calls for assistance in the 24 hours to 5.30pm, mostly in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
The SES responded to 98 incidents in Heidelberg, 84 in Fawkner and 75 in Whittlesea.
More than 500 calls related to downed trees and 205 for cases of building damage, with the strong winds whipped up by a cold front off southern Australia.
Trains on the busy Upfield line have been cancelled between North Melbourne and Coburg stations after falling debris caused a power fault.
Services have resumed on the Hurstbridge line after a tree fell across the tracks and disrupted services.
Roof damage caused by strong winds in Heidelberg Heights on Monday. Credit: Nine News
About 5000 households across the state were without power on Tuesday evening after strong winds brought down power lines.
About 2200 households in Victoria’s east were affected as of 6pm, according to AusNet, while about 1500 households were without power in Western Victoria, provider PowerCor reported. Jemena, which services some of Melbourne’s north-western suburbs, reported that 867 customers were affected by unplanned outages.
Wind speeds peaked in Melbourne at 104km/h at Melbourne Airport, 96km/h in Essendon and 89 km/h in St Kilda. Closer to the CBD, gusts were detected at 72km/h.
However, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Angus Hines said, “the very strongest winds are on the way out this afternoon”.
“We’re still expecting damaging winds through parts of eastern Victoria, but those strongest winds in Melbourne probably have already blown through.
“[But it’ll] still be pretty windy, pretty gusty through the rest of the evening today and in fact not a calm day tomorrow either, but it’s not looking to be as windy as what we saw earlier this afternoon.”
A damaging wind warning will remain in place for parts of Gippsland and the eastern ranges into Tuesday.
The temperature in Melbourne today peaked at 24.2 degrees on Monday, with an average high of 17.5 degrees forecast for the rest of the week.
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