Victoria faces tornado threat as thunderstorms and huge hail hit southeast Australia | Weather in Australia

Severe thunderstorms with “huge hail” the size of golf balls, wild winds and heavy rain are lashing Australia's southeast as a cold front moves across the country, bringing the threat of tornadoes to parts of Victoria.

Residents of Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula have been urged to prepare for a “very dangerous” storm late Friday afternoon, with heavy rainfall that could lead to “dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding”.

Flash flooding was also expected in Melbourne's outer suburbs, including the airport, as the thunderstorms moved east-southeast.

A senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, Angus Hines, said the focus of Friday afternoon's thunderstorm outbreak was concentrated in southeastern New South Wales and parts of Tasmania and Victoria.

He said severe thunderstorms would bring “heavy rain, damaging winds and large hail to many areas”, including Melbourne, where flash flooding was possible.

In Victoria on Friday, the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick recorded 26mm of rain in the 30 minutes to midday, while Frankston recorded 35mm of rain in two hours.

“The rain is caused by a low pressure system and cold front that is currently crossing southern regions and will continue to do so Friday afternoon,” Hines said.

“We have seen huge hail in parts of Australia over the last few days – this could happen again this afternoon. Down in Victoria, severe storms could bring anything: wind, rain and hail.”

A spokesman for Victoria's State Control Center said emergency services had received 254 requests for assistance since 6pm on Thursday, including 99 for building damage and 86 for flooding. Frankston was the busiest unit with 45 inquiries in the same period.

“The risk of damaging winds, huge hail and heavy rainfall remains, and there is a possible possibility of tornadoes forming in this area of ​​the upper northeast part of the state,” the spokesman said.

Over 3,000 homes and businesses in western Victoria were affected by outages and while AusNet Services had restored power to some parts of the state's east, additional teams were on standby to deal with further disruptions.

Extensive damage to transmission towers between Buronga and Broken Hill in western New South Wales had also left more than 1,600 people without power, with some temporarily connected to backup generators.

Victoria Emergency Services Duty Officer Shane McBride urged motorists to avoid unnecessary journeys. “Anyone thinking about traveling around today needs, first and foremost, to plan a trip (and think about whether they need to travel at all”), he said.

Four severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect for much of NSW, the ACT and Victoria on Friday afternoon, including Geelong and Melbourne's outer east and west. Wind speeds of more than 75 mph (125 km/h) and huge hail measuring 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter or larger are possible, Hines said, particularly in alpine regions.

Severe thunderstorms hit large parts of the country overnight, including South Australia, southern parts of the Northern Territory, inland NSW and northwest Victoria. Weatherzone recorded more than 200,000 lightning strikes.

Port Pirie in South Africa was hit by winds of up to 137km/h, while Roxby Downs and Tarcoola saw winds of 113km/h. Mount Horrocks was showered with 36mm of rain in just one hour.

The bureau's Miriam Bradbury said Friday that the cold front and low pressure system would move across the Southeast and “warm, humid, windy weather” would increase throughout the day.

Storms were most likely to occur on the central and southwestern slopes of New South Wales and northeastern Victoria, with damaging wind gusts of more than 125 km/h possible.

Heavy rain on Phillip Island delayed the start of MotoGP, with Friday's session canceled due to repeated rain on the track.

Bradbury said the front would move away from the East Coast overnight, bringing the bulk of the severe weather offshore.

“Southern Victoria, Tasmania and eastern New South Wales will see decreasing showers with at times gusty southerly winds on Saturday. It will be a bit chilly in southern Victoria, but it will remain mild elsewhere,” Bradbury said.

“There is a small chance of a thunderstorm across northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland, but it is not expected to bring much rain or be severe.”

Conditions would continue to ease by the weekend. Sunday should be mostly dry and partly cloudy to sunny in the east and southeast.