THE Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for the Wimmera.
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The warning, for damaging winds and blizzard conditions, was issued at 4.53am on Monday and affects much of the state.
Bureau senior forecaster Phil King said a strong cold front moved across the state overnight.
“It looks like a really wintry week is about to arrive and on Monday we’ll see the first of a series of cold fronts move across the state,” he said.
He predicted gale force northerly winds of up to 120 kilometres in the Grampians and other elevated parts of the region.
“Once our front does go through in the early afternoon we’ll see much colder conditions and snowfalls for the Grampians down to about 700 metres,” he said.
“Tuesday is going to be as windy as today or even more windy.
“We’re expecting to issue more severe weather warnings during the rest of the week.”
Damaging winds around 60 to 80 kilometres an hour are expected over southern and mountain districts, with gusts about 90 to 100kmh.
Peak gusts of 100-120 kmh are expected over elevated areas.
At 5am Monday, the highest gusts recorded since midnight Sunday included 128kmh at Mt William.
Mr King said the windy and cold conditions would continue into the weekend.
About 20 millimetres of rain is expected to fall across the Wimmera during the week.