The Bureau of Meteorology cancelled its severe weather warnings for Victoria and the New South Wales Snowy Mountains early on Wednesday, after a cold front and a weakening low moved east of Victoria overnight. The Victorian cancellation was issued at 4.53am and covered the East Gippsland, South West, North East, West and South Gippsland districts. The Snowy Mountains cancellation followed at 4.50am.
The strongest gust the Bureau logged was 106km/h at Mount Hotham at 8.36pm on Tuesday. Cape Nelson Lighthouse recorded 98km/h at 8.46pm and Cape Otway Lighthouse 91km/h at 2.52am on Wednesday. The last of the damaging gusts came on the southwest coast, hours after the alps had eased.
The warning being cancelled does not mean the weather has finished with the southeast. Sheep graziers warnings are current on both sides of the border. In New South Wales they cover the Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes, Snowy Mountains and the Australian Capital Territory. In Victoria they cover the North East, South West, Central, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland districts. A sheep graziers warning is issued when the Bureau expects the combination of cold, wind and wet to threaten lambs and recently shorn sheep, and it is the warning that matters most to anyone with stock on high paddocks this week.
Marine wind warnings are also current for New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania, with four ocean wind warnings running for Metarea 10, the offshore zone the Bureau forecasts for on Australia's behalf. Neither Western Australia nor the Northern Territory has an active warning.
The State Emergency Service asked residents in the affected districts to treat any fallen powerline as live and to stay clear of debris, damaged roads and fallen trees. Its standing advice against walking, cycling or driving through flood water applies while runoff clears.
The Bureau had issued the warning at 4.52am on Tuesday, forecasting northwesterly winds averaging 60 to 70km/h with peak gusts near 100km/h above 1,200 metres in the alps, and southwesterly gusts near 90km/h on the southwest coast from Tuesday evening. Hotham ran ahead of that forecast by six kilometres an hour, and Cape Nelson by eight.
The Bureau said no further severe weather warnings would be issued for this event. Graziers and anyone still without power should work off the current warning list at bom.gov.au, or the Bureau's warnings line on 1300 659 210, rather than Tuesday's forecast.
