Ferocious winds with gusts equivalent to a category two tropical cyclone have caused widespread damage across Victoria in the last 24 hours, along with huge waves and flooding along the coast.

A powerful cold front embedded in an unusually strong pressure gradient caused a burst of damaging to destructive winds in Victoria on Sunday night into Monday morning. Wind gusts reached 100 to 150 km/h across a broad area of the state, stretching from Portland in the west to Gabo Island in the east and Eildon and Falls Creek in the north. Some of the strongest gusts included:

• 146 km/h at Wilsons Promontory
• 141 km/h at Mount Hotham
• 141 km/h at Fawkner Beacon
• 133 km/h at Mount Gellibrand
• 132 km/h at Falls Creek
• 124 km/h at South Channel Island
• 120 km/h at Portland Airport
• 115 km/h at Gabo Island
• 113 km/h at St Kilda Harbour
• 113 km/h at Cape Otway
• 113 km/h at Aireys Inlet
• 109 km/h at Port Fairy
• 106 km/h at Port Wilson
• 104 km/h at Eildon Fire Tower
• 102 km/h at Essendon

These winds caused widespread power outages as trees and branches fell onto power poles, wires and other infrastructure. Powercor reported more than 34,000 customers without power in western Vic on Monday morning, while more than 90,000 customers were without power in the state’s east, according to AusNet. More customers were affected in areas serviced by other electricity providers as well.

If you see a fallen powerline, stay more than 10 metres away and report it to your energy provider immediately.

The damaging winds also kept emergency services busy, with the Vic SES receiving more than 2,800 requests for assistance on Sunday night into Monday morning.

Video: The Vic SES responding to tree damage at Clarinda in Melbourne. Source: @thelucentcomic / X

This system’s powerful winds were even stronger over open water, with gusts reaching 150 km/h at Hogan Island early on Monday. This caused huge waves to surge through Bass Strait, forcing tides to reach abnormally high levels along the Vic coastline.

Image: Wind gusts at 4am AEST on Monday, according to the ACCESS-C model.

Significant wave heights of 8.4 m were recorded at Cape Bridgewater early on Monday, while data from Gippsland Ports reveals that tides rose close to one metre higher than the expected levels at Lakes Entrance and Port Welshpool Wharf on Monday morning.

Image: Rough seas at Ocean Grove on Sunday, September 1, 2024. Source: @aviva2.0 / Instagram

While the strongest winds have now passed, a brisk stream of west to southwesterly winds will linger over Vic into Monday afternoon in the wake of last night’s cold front. As of 1pm AEST, a severe weather warning was still in place for damaging winds gusts across some of the state’s southern, central and eastern districts, including Melbourne. A Coastal Hazard warning was also in place for abnormally high tides and damaging surf along parts of the coast.

Conditions should ease on Tuesday as a high pressure ridge builds across the state, giving the SES and energy providers a good window of calmer weather to clean up and reconnect power across the state.

You can call 132 500 from anywhere in Vic for assistance during a weather-related emergency. For life-threatening emergencies call Triple Zero (000).