A blow to weekend activities
A BRUTAL weekend awaits Geelong and surrounds with warnings of damaging winds sweeping through the region.
A severe weather warning has been issued for today with wind gusts up to 100km/h expected to lash the region into the afternoon and the potential for hail.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Dean Stewart said the state was in for “a bit of everything” due to a different cold front to the one that caused windy conditions yesterday.
“Just ahead of it, it’s expected to produce quite strong northwesterly winds, but I think the strongest wind gusts will be from the west and southwest following the front,” he said. “With a cold front coming through, we do have a lot of cold air coming in behind it, so there is the chance that we’ll see some hail and thunder across mainly southern parts of the state.
Mr Stewart said localised squally winds would be the biggest threat to the strongest of the winds and warned people to stay away from trees to avoid the rain, predicted to be around 5mm.
“As the afternoon progresses, the risk will gradually diminish, but it will still be gusty,” he said.
Sailing is certainly off the cards for Western Beach Boat Club acting president Ron Kromkamp who said conditions would be “horrible”.
“When we strike northerlies, it doesn’t make for very good sailing and big waves hit the club,” he said. “I don’t think there will be too many guys sailing this weekend.”
Most parts of Geelong experienced wind gusts exceeding 50km/h yesterday in a precursor to the worst of the conditions.
Geelong Racecourse hit 57km/h, Point Wilson got to 69km/h and Aireys Inlet 67km/h all around 2pm yesterday, while Avalon Airport recorded 69km/h at 12.17pm.