Australia Weather News

Storms have been rolling through Melbourne as heavy rain falls across a large section of central Victoria.

Two emergency warnings were issued at 2pm for severe thunderstorms affecting a large area stretching from Sunbury, north-west of Melbourne, through St Albans to Coburg, Preston and down to Melbourne's CBD.

They also included an area from Healesville to Yarra Junction and out past Warburton, east of Melbourne.

By 3pm, the emergency warning had shifted away from Sunbury across Melbourne's north to include eastern suburbs such as Doncaster and Greensborough and further south-east including Danendong, Berwick and near Pakenham.

Thunderstorms were detected near the area east of Pakenham and Bunyip just before 4pm, and were moving further south-east.

The storms dumped almost 40 millimetres of rain at Spring Hill, north-west of Melbourne, in just over an hour.

Another dangerous storm cell had developed over north-west Victoria at 3:30pm, with heavy rain predicted for Swan Hill, Ouyen, Kerang and Birchip.

Emergency Management Victoria warned intense rainfall was likely to lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding.

"Very dangerous thunderstorms were detected near Sunbury, Sydenham at 2:05pm," the warnings said.

"These thunderstorms are moving towards the south-east."

A severe weather warning was issued for almost half of the state today, with authorities particularly concerned about the central and eastern districts.

State Control Centre spokesperson Josh Gamble said the hardest-hit areas included Reservoir, Craigieburn, Heidelberg and Sunbury in Melbourne's northern and north-western suburbs, and Gisborne in the north-west.

He said there were 70 active SES requests for assistance as of 4.30pm and a total of 190 since midnight.

The callouts were mainly for minor roof damage and flooding. 

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Daniel Hayes said some areas had received almost 1mm of rain per minute.

"So the potential is there that we could see some quite significant flash flooding risk as those thunderstorms continue to move through," he said.

"The main risk is this rain comes down very heavily and can lead to the rise of drains and floodways and creeks and so forth in areas where people may not have expected them."

About 7,000 properties were without power at 3pm.

About half of them were in an area serviced by Citipower and Powercor, including the CBD, inner suburbs and Melbourne's west.

Spokesperson Emma Tyner said 890 customers had lost power in the Sunshine North area in Melbourne's west after lightning hit a pole, while in the northern suburbs, 765 customers in Northcote and more than 1,000 in Thornbury had been disconnected.

Ms Tyner told ABC Radio Melbourne crews were working as quickly as possible to restore power.

"We certainly ramped up resources leading up to today. We've been monitoring this weather for some time, so we're ready to respond," she said.

Callers told the ABC that outbound lanes at the railway underpass on Dandenong Road at Caulfield Road were flooded just after 3pm, along with sections of Canterbury Road city-bound at Bayswater North.

Another caller from Ballan said he had recorded more rain in 30 minutes than he had since the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Michael in Bendigo said the skies were clear and there had not been a drop of rain.

Authorities warned rain in bushfire-affected areas could create the potential for landslides and wash debris, such as ash, soil, trees and rocks, into local waterways.