Heavy Rains Fall Across Australia

This year has been an above average year for rain here in Victoria and now with the heavy rains that are being dumped this summer it is only getting better.  However, with these heavy rains comes the flooding as well:

Melbourne was lashed with torrential rain yesterday, but worse was expected overnight.

"The storm band is moving down and potentially there could be the same, if not more, than we had yesterday," a BoM spokesman said.

The Bendigo Creek burst its banks in central Victoria and floodwaters threatened homes in Axedale, Barnadown and Goornong near Bendigo, police said.

The Northern Highway was flooded, affecting traffic from both directions between Wallan and Kilmore, north of Melbourne this evening.

The flooding caused havoc for Christmas traffic, which was forced to turn around as police set up road diversions. Most flooding in Melbourne is expected to subside, the SES said.

The BoM has issued flood watches for most of Victoria from Upper Murray and Kiewa in the northeast to Gippsland in the east and Otway Ranges in the southwest. [News.com]

My backyard looked like a swimming pool yesterday with all the rain and more is expected tonight.  Just down the road from me the Victorian Alps are being forcasted for possible snow in the middle of summer:

Meteorologist for weatherzone.com.au, Matt Pearce, said snow could fall on the higher ranges of the Victorian Alps today.

"The snowfall will depend on whether it is cold enough and has enough moisture around," Mr Pearce said.

"We’re expecting a lot of heavy rain overnight and early tomorrow morning ahead of the front.

"There could be a period in the middle of the day when it is still cold enough and still enough moisture around to cause light snow in the Victorian Alps." [News.com]

Interestingly enough snow fell over Christmas last year too in the Victorian Alps.  The always welcome rain has been falling not only in Victoria but across Australia as well that even created a tornado in South Australia. 

Here are some reader photos from News.com of the damage from the heavy rains in Melbourne:

Fortunately my backyard doesn’t look as bad as these pictures.  I hope it stays that way.