Machell said the wind will be blowing from the west, rather than from the north as it generally does, meaning stressed tree branches were more likely to snap.
He cautioned landowners undertaking planned burns to monitor their fires when the wind changes direction.
Between midnight and 1.30pm on Wednesday afternoon, SES volunteers received 113 call-outs for assistance, with calls expected to rise into the afternoon. A thunderstorm asthma warning is also in place.
Of the 113 call-outs so far, there have been 60 reports of trees down and 25 for building damage. Hamilton has received the most call-outs with seven, and Ararat, Dartmoor and Maryborough have each received five calls.
Electricity providers Powercor and CitiPower reported that 1040 customers in Melbourne’s east were suffering from unplanned outages about 1pm.
Powercor, which services homes in Victoria’s north and west, said extra crews were on standby to address outages.
“Extreme winds like these are rare – but when they hit, they dramatically increase the risk of trees, branches or debris damaging our network and causing localised outages,” head of network control and operations Peter Galey said in a statement.
“Make sure you are ready to enact your back-up plan if you rely on life support equipment or need electrical items to care for others, and have water available if your supply relies on power.”
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