The Richardson River in western Victoria has risen to moderate flood level, while the alpine rivers that carried the first of this week's flooding have fallen back to minor.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Victorian warnings summary, current at 3.52pm AEST on Friday, has moderate flood warnings for the Richardson and the Avoca. Minor warnings are current for the Latrobe, the Kiewa, the Ovens and King, Seven Creeks, the Goulburn and the Loddon. The Broken River has a final flood warning, which is the notice the Bureau issues when a river has dropped below the minor threshold and no further bulletins will follow.
Nine warnings are current, the same number as Thursday evening, but four of them have changed class. The Ovens and King came down from moderate. So did the Loddon. The Broken has finished. The Richardson has gone the other way, from minor on Thursday to moderate on Friday.
The pattern is west. The Ovens, King and Kiewa rise in the alpine north east and were the first to run after the rain that fell over the weekend and into Monday, when the Bureau recorded 165.6 millimetres at Mt Buffalo Chalet and 159.0 millimetres at Handcocks in the 24 hours to 9am Monday. The Richardson and the Avoca sit further west, in flatter country, and they fill and drain more slowly. Donald, on the Richardson, is the town the Victoria State Emergency Service flood guide identifies as the one to watch on that river.
Moderate flooding is the Bureau's classification for water over low-lying land, some roads cut and some properties isolated. It is a step below major, which describes widespread inundation.
The Bureau also has a frost warning current for the North East forecast district, the same country that was under a major flood warning on Wednesday. Clear skies and light winds behind a departing system produce the cold nights, and the North East is the part of Victoria that gets them first.
Marine wind warnings are current for Victorian waters.
No Victorian flood warning has been cancelled. River heights are read overnight and the Bureau reissues each warning as new gauge readings arrive. Current warnings and road closures are published on the Bureau's Victorian warnings page and at VicEmergency.
