AN active cold front brought in windy and wintery conditions to Swan Hill on Wednesday with 82km/h winds ripping through the region.
The gusts kept Swan Hill Rural City Council workers and the State Emergency Service (SES) busy attending to fallen tree branches.
Swan Hill also recorded 0.2mm of rain, coating vehicles and anything else outdoors in a film of dust.
Police were also on hand to assist with traffic management while SES members cleared the roads.
SES Swan Hill unit controller Darren Barnes told The Guardian their unit was called out to 11 jobs throughout the day.
“We had mainly trees down blocking roads and driveways,” Mr Barnes told The Guardian.
“Most of the trees were on Ultima Road (Sea Lake-Swan Hill Road), Ultima was the main area that was hit.”
Mr Barnes said Powercor were also involved in two incidents in Swan Hill.
“There was Frazer Street (in Swan Hill), a tree on the power line,” he said.
“And, Logan Street (in Swan Hill), the powerline from the power pole to the house had been pulled from the house.
“Both residences didn’t have electricity to the house overnight until electricians could attend.”
SES members also attended to reports of trees down on Kurrle Court and Kimberley Avenue in Swan Hill in the evening.
Around 8.15pm, SES attended to a report of building damage to a home on Lalbert Road in Lake Boga.
“Two sheets of corrugated iron came off the roof of the house,” Mr Barnes said.
Trees down were also reported in Robinvale and other areas of Swan Hill.
Around 4.20pm, Swan Hill Rural City Council members attended to a tree branch that fell onto the footpath at the Milloo Street boat ramp.
Senior technical officer Simon Burge told The Guardian trees down could be reported through triple zero.
He said the removal job then goes through to either the SES or the council.
Swan Hill Country Fire Authority captain Dennis Turner said there were no weather-related reports made to the CFA throughout the day.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Melbourne-based forecaster Michael Halfpenny told The Guardian in Swan Hill, the winds were “quite strong” in the morning.
“There was average winds between 40-50km/h throughout the day, but we had instantaneous gusts of 82km/h and that was in the mid-afternoon,” he said.
“We had gusts throughout the whole day.
“We had gusts about 80km/h throughout 7pm last night and that was just the head of the wind, then a cool change went through.”
Mr Halfpenny said the strong winds wound down after dusk.
The forecaster said there was “quite a lot” of dust in the latter afternoon, and the evening with the cool change.
“It was north to north-westerly during the day and around the west and south-west around 8.20pm,” he said.
Mr Halfpenny said an active cold front across Victoria, associated with a deep low south of Victoria, produced strong winds right through the state.
“Typically what you would see in winter rather than summer,” he said.
BOM senior forecaster Dean Stewart further added the dust storm had caused visibility of less then 500 metres in Mildura, when the winds were at their strongest.
“So very poor conditions up there,” he said.
“We did have other reports across northern Victoria of similar visibly dropping down before 1km, so conditions up north were particularly dusty.”
The 82km winds experienced in Swan Hill was below the 90km/h winds experienced in western Victoria.
The highest report of strong winds on Wednesday was recorded in the Alpine area, reaching in excess of 130km/h.
