{"id":511281,"date":"2026-03-01T07:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T07:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511281\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T07:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T07:06:12","slug":"severe-weather-warning-in-place-as-more-wild-weather-lashes-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511281\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe weather warning in place as more wild weather lashes Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heavy rain and thunderstorms have soaked parched paddocks, flooded streets and caused electrical failures across Victoria, with more wild weather on the way.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology said there had been significant rainfall over the north-west of the state on the weekend, with Horsham getting 126 millimetres between 9am Friday and 9am Sunday.<\/p>\n

Senior meteorologist Michael Efron said 96mm fell in a couple of hours on Friday night, driven by significant thunderstorm activity over Horsham.<\/p>\n

Further north, Mildura recorded 65.8mm of rainfall in the 24 hours leading up to 9am on Sunday — the region’s wettest March rainfall entry on record.<\/p>\n

A severe weather warning for locally intense rainfall is in place in Mallee, Northern Country, Wimmera and parts of Central, South West North Central and North East\u00a0Victoria.<\/p>\n

“For the Mallee and the Wimmera, for today, we’re looking at a further 25 to 60mm,” Mr Efron said.Chef defaults to gas cooking<\/p>\n

Dimboola chef Cat Clarke was halfway through dinner service on Friday night when the storm hit.<\/p>\n

“We were forecast for rain, checked the radar and then there was no rain coming,” Clarke said.<\/p>\n

“Then halfway through the service the rain came, there was thunder and lightning and the power went out, flickered on and off about five times.”\"Woman<\/p>\n

Cat Clarke cooking with no power at her Dimboola restaurant on Friday. (Supplied: Cat Clarke)<\/p>\n

The kitchen was running four dockets when the power failed for good at dusk.<\/p>\n

Stoves at the restaurant are gas-powered, but require electricity to start.<\/p>\n

Clarke was careful not to let any stovetop flames go out.<\/p>\n

“So we’ve got no deep fryer, no oven and our stovetop, you need the electrics to actually light the top,” Clarke said.<\/p>\n

“With no power, we had no exhaust, no fans, no air conditioning, so it turned into a massive hot box.”<\/p>\n

Clarke, who has worked in kitchens for three decades, said staff improvised with phone torches and rechargeable lamps to finish meals for about 14 remaining customers.<\/p>\n

“I yelled to the customers to let them know this is the situation, please just be patient, I’m doing what I can, and they’re all like, ‘Oh no, this is great, you’re doing great,'” she said.<\/p>\n

“For the pepper berry Scotch fillet steak that’s served with chips, I was like, ‘Sorry guys, I’ve got potatoes I’m heating up in the pan to go with that.'”<\/p>\n

\"Lamp<\/p>\n

Guests ate by rechargable lamp light as the storm raged on. (Supplied: Cat Clarke)<\/p>\n

‘People had to evacuate’<\/p>\n

In Horsham, 150km Feast event director Andrea Cross said the downpour posed the greatest challenge she had ever faced in the events industry.<\/p>\n

The culinary event is a celebration of local produce.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen rain like it,” Ms Cross said.<\/p>\n

“Friday night, the rain, it just fell so heavy and fast.”<\/p>\n

\"Flooded<\/p>\n

The venue flooded on Friday night and again on Saturday. (Supplied: Andrea Cross)<\/p>\n

Ms Cross’s first concern was keeping water out of the stables, which had been covered into a candlelit dinner venue.<\/p>\n

“Here I was at 7:30pm, trying to stick bamboo through culverts to make sure things were clear and the water was just backing up so quickly,” Ms Cross said.<\/p>\n

“Then it ended up flooding the stables.”<\/p>\n

She posted a late-night call for help on the local community social media page, and was met the next morning by 60 volunteers.<\/p>\n

They erected gazebos and a covered corridor so wait staff could carry meals to tables as more rain set in on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Volunteers worked to minimise the flood’s impact. (Supplied: Andrea Cross)<\/p>\n

By about 9pm, heavy rain flooded the venue for the second time.<\/p>\n

“Water was rushing in through the stable door,” Ms Cross said.<\/p>\n

“In the end it would have been ankle deep in at least a third of the stables, people had to evacuate reasonably quickly.”<\/p>\n

About 110 guests who had just finished dessert relocated indoors to conclude the evening.<\/p>\n

“If you wanted to create an experience, that was one of the most amazing experiences ever, to be wining and dining and then to have your feet starting to get wet,” Ms Cross said.<\/p>\n

Win for growers<\/p>\n

Just north of Mildura on the New South Wales border, Sunraysia Citrus Growers chair Kevin Cock said the rain was mostly positive for local orchards.<\/p>\n

“Firstly, citrus loves the rain,” Mr Cock said.<\/p>\n

“One, you don’t have to irrigate so much for a while and it’ll wash down any saline soil,” he said.<\/p>\n

He estimated his property had received about 50mm of rain at the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kevin Cock says it’s time to check fruit fly traps. (ABC Broken Hill: Kristina Rosengren)<\/p>\n

But he said the muggy conditions could trigger a spike in fruit fly numbers.<\/p>\n

“We could get an outbreak,” Mr Cock said.<\/p>\n

“They love the tropical conditions and when the sun comes out and you get a shower of rain, they are very active.<\/p>\n

“So what we need to do really is check your traps if you’ve got traps and put a bait spray on.”<\/p>\n

He said the widespread rain was encouraging for dryland farmers across the Mallee and Wimmera.<\/p>\n

“They were desperate for some growth.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heavy rain and thunderstorms have soaked parched paddocks, flooded streets and caused electrical failures across Victoria, with more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61838,40350,46891,36506,43,145508,44096,48066,44,76137,17711,16307,74668,41,39,42,40,660,1192],"class_list":{"0":"post-511281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bom","9":"tag-bureau","10":"tag-dimboola","11":"tag-emergency","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-horsham","14":"tag-lightning","15":"tag-mildura","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-severe","18":"tag-storm","19":"tag-thunder","20":"tag-thunderstorm","21":"tag-top-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topnews","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-victoria","26":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}