Ben Domensino, 21 Oct 2016, 12:52 AM UTC
From wind to rain in the southeast
Victoria and Tasmania won't have time to recover from damaging winds this morning, with rain threatening to cause flooding across both states in the next 24 hours.
Northerly winds strengthened ahead of a cold front this morning and as expected, both state's experienced damaging gusts.
The strongest winds in Victoria were recorded on elevated terrain at Mount Gellibrand (112km/h) and William (106km/h). Melbourne didn't escape the turbulence, with the gusts of 100km/h registered at Tullamarine Airport and in Port Phillip Bay.
Tasmania's strongest winds were on top of Mount Wellington, where a gust of 120km/h was clocked shortly before 5am. Triple figure gusts were also observed on the coast and ranges in the state's west and south, where Cape Sorell and Mount Read both reached 113km/h. Hobart's strongest wind gust this morning was 76km/h.
Winds are easing for most areas in both states behind the front, although the dangerous weather isn't over just yet.
A band of rain sweeping in behind the front will produce widespread totals of 20-30mm during the next 24 hours in northern and western Tasmania and areas on and south of the ranges in Victoria.
While the severe weather warnings for damaging winds have been cancelled for most areas, flood watches remain in place of parts of both states.
Rain will clear by the weekend, although further showers, thunderstorms, small hail and snow will develop on Saturday. Drier weather will return to most areas on Sunday, except eastern Victoria where showers won't clear until Monday.
Note to media: You are welcome to republish text from the above news article as direct quotes from Weatherzone. When doing so, please reference www.weatherzone.com.au in the credit.