维州暴风雨警报

Victorians have been warned to brace for high winds and flooding as an intense low pressure system sweeps across the state from Tuesday night.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has issued a severe weather warning for the northern country, Wimmera, western, north central and central forecast districts for damaging winds averaging up to 70km/h, with gusts up to 110km/h as the low sweeps south from NSW.

The warning covers metropolitan Melbourne and major regional centres including Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Warrnambool and Horsham.

Heavy rain leading to local flooding is forecast for Wednesday for the western district, particularly around the Otway ranges and the surf coast.

Flood watch warnings are already in place for a host of catchments including the Upper Murray, Kiewa, Mitta Mitta, Ovens, King and Goulburn rivers in the northeast, the Barwon catchment around Geelong and the Maribyrnong and Yarra catchments around Melbourne after heavy rain on Tuesday.

Further falls of up to 50mm are expected in many areas on Wednesday.