Australian News-Victorians warned of further fierce storms, hail

A SEVERE thunderstorm warning has been issued for damaging wind, flash flooding and large hailstones in parts of Victoria.

The weather bureau warning applies for people in the Northern Country, Northeast and parts of the North Central and Alpine Forecast Districts.

It warns severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours.

Earlier, a sudden increase in temperature boosted the chances of more storms in Melbourne.

Weather bureau senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said the city's temperature had shot up to 26C, which could see thunderstorms develop.

"Given we have shot up to 26C we might see thunderstorms develop close to Melbourne which could mean we might see something not far away. But it is still a bit of a waiting game."

Mr Brumby said there were weak trees in many bushfire ravaged parts of Victoria and around the state that were vulnerable to strong winds.Premier John Brumby urged Victorians to batten down the hatches

Mr Brumby warned people to stay inside during the possibly severe storms, and he said people at public events must be prepared to act if weather struck this afternoon.

"It really is batten down the hatches (with forecast) thunderstorms possibly as intense as yesterday,” Mr Brumby said."We got through yesterday without any loss of life or serious injury, we would want to see if we could keep to this today and tomorrow."

"We should take great care as we move through this afternoon, tonight and into tomorrow and make sure we put this focus on protecting life and protecting public safety."

He said the roof of the arts centre had been badly damaged by yesterday’s storms and could cost up to millions of dollars to repair.

He was unable to put an estimated dollar figure on the expected repair bill, and said more damage is expected to be reported in the coming days when people return home from Labour Day holidays.

Crews from the NSW State Emergency Service have been drafted in to help their Victorian counterparts clean up the damage caused by the mini-cyclone storm that lashed Melbourne yesterday.

The storm cell unleashed itself on the city at 2.40pm, dumping 26mm of rain in less than an hour.

Critique:

I believe that Victorians will be facing a devastating period during the fierce storms season. There will be a serious damage of properties and probably human lives. Therefore, people in that area have to be careful whenever they are going out and staying at home should be the best option for them to avoid the bad whether. On the other hands, government should take early action in preventing the fierce storm to become disaster. Necessaries like food should be prepaid in advanced. Thinking from another perspective, why fierce storms are likely to occur so often? According to article above, it said that thunderstorm is developed due to the shot-up of temperature. Think more deeply, does the increase in global temperature related to what human had done? A 100% yes! The fast development of world had cause a severe change to the earth environment and made it polluted. So, human have to be more concern about the earth and start to save it from now!