Another two cars were caught in flash flooding under the Dudley Street bridge in West Melbourne shortly before 1pm.
Major roads in Southbank were also drenched, causing flash flooding on City Road, Clarendon Street and the Kings Way entry to the West Gate Freeway. VicTraffic reported the M80 Ring Road had also been inundated in Melbourne’s north.
Public Transport Victoria reported major delays on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines due to a train fault and “weather-related issues” near Toorak. An equipment fault near Montmorency caused Metro Trains to temporarily suspend services on the Hurstbridge line about 1pm.
An updated weather bureau alert at 3.17pm adjusted the thunderstorm warning zone to cover much of the High Country and Gippsland. It said a 91km/h wind gust was recorded at East Sale airport at 3.04pm.
Despite the rain, firefighters remained on edge on Sunday afternoon as the thunderstorm travelled into Gippsland and brought dozens of lightning strikes with it.
Just before 3.30pm, a watch-and-act warning was issued for a bushfire in Kangaroo Swamp Nature Conservation Reserve that was travelling out of control towards Giffard West, a hamlet about 30 kilometres south of Sale. However, it was soon downgraded to an advice message.
In a Facebook post, the Valencia Creek CFA in Gippsland said a lightning strike overnight had ignited a small fire in state forest, but it was expected to be contained on Sunday.
In Geelong, another storm cell caused dozens of lightning strikes on Sunday morning, according to Weatherzone’s radar.
Thousands of Victorians suffered power outages as the wild weather wreaked havoc.
In Melbourne’s north-west, Jemena reported 4029 customers were without power early on Sunday afternoon. Shortly before 4.30pm, 233 customers remained without electricity.
Scienceworks said on social media that it had to close early on Sunday after a power outage in Spotswood.
In Melbourne’s south-east, United Energy reported 1623 customers without power about 3.15pm, but this fell to about 900 on Sunday evening.
In western Victoria and central Melbourne, Powercor reported 1546 customers off supply late on Sunday afternoon. In eastern Victoria, AusNet reported about 4600 customers without power on Sunday evening.
The weather bureau forecast a top of 27 degrees in Melbourne on Sunday and said up to 20 millimetres of rain was possible. But by 4.40pm, 30.6 millimetres had fallen at Olympic Park since 9am.
No formal severe thunderstorm warning was active when storms hit the CBD about midday.
In a statement responding to questions about their warnings on Sunday, a bureau spokesperson said a thunderstorm forecast post on X at 9.35am warned of likely severe thunderstorms over the central and eastern Ranges, and possible severe thunderstorms over northern Melbourne.
With Melissa Cunningham
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