Melbourne’s Wild Weather Turns Streets Into Rivers as Tornado Fear Grips West
It’s been a dramatic and chaotic weekend for Melbourne, with the city recording its wettest day in an entire year. What started as a typical spring afternoon quickly turned into a full-blown storm event, leaving parts of the western suburbs battered and residents shaken. Heavy rain, fierce winds, and even a suspected tornado tore through Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, and Wyndham Vale, turning calm neighbourhoods into scenes of destruction.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, a staggering 15 millimetres of rain fell in just 15 minutes between 4:20 and 4:35 p.m. on Sunday — an intensity that even seasoned meteorologists described as remarkable. In total, 31.6 millimetres were recorded across the city between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., making it the wettest day since last October. Streets were quickly flooded, gutters overflowed, and the CBD briefly went under a sheet of rainwater as lightning cracked across the skyline.
The worst of the damage, however, was felt in the city’s west. Powercor reported that more than 28,000 customers were left without electricity after lightning struck powerlines and strong winds hurled roofing tiles, solar panels, and debris through the air. Crews worked late into the night to restore power, managing to reconnect more than 25,000 homes by 9 p.m., though some residents remained in the dark for hours.
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Residents described the scenes as terrifying. One Werribee local, Tara, told ABC Radio that it felt “like a movie” as the wind roared through the streets and trees were ripped from the ground. She said the noise was deafening, and for a few minutes, it truly felt like a tornado was tearing through the area. Authorities haven’t officially confirmed a tornado touchdown yet, but the damage left behind certainly raised the possibility.
The State Emergency Service received more than 500 calls throughout the day — most of them for building damage, fallen trees, and flash flooding. Werribee alone accounted for over a hundred of those calls, with Hoppers Crossing following close behind. Meanwhile, Mount Buller topped the rainfall charts across Victoria, recording 48 millimetres in the same period.
Even sporting events weren’t spared. In Carlton, an AFLW match between Carlton and the GWS Giants was suspended for 40 minutes after lightning strikes lit up the sky. Over in Ballarat, another game went ahead under soaking conditions that one player compared to “running in a swimming pool.”
Meteorologists have reminded everyone that this kind of wild, unpredictable weather is typical for Melbourne’s spring — when warm and cold systems clash to create bursts of energy across the atmosphere. The city is expected to see a cooler, slightly wet Monday with temperatures hovering around 14 degrees, followed by a chilly Tuesday morning before clearer skies return.
For now, though, Melbourne is catching its breath after one of the most intense and fast-moving storm systems the city has seen in quite some time — a reminder that in this city, the weather truly can change in an instant.
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