GALE force winds are battering Victoria's alpine district in the northeast of the state but for Melburnians, the worst of the weather has passed.

Senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology Richard Carlyon said Melbourne was likely to receive showers later today but it will be nothing like the freak hail storm that turned streets into rivers on Saturday.

"There are gale force winds gusting up to 50 knots in the alpine areas but we are not likely to see that in the rest of Victoria," Mr Carlyon said.

"There will be a few showers moving in from the north and maybe a heavy sharp downfall bringing 10mm in quick time, but we're not expecting any severe damage with that."

The general insurance industry has received more than 20,000 claims after Saturday's blast, while the RACV has handled more than 3000 claims for car damage.

Meanwhile, emergency services workers expect to be mopping up the mess caused by the massive freak hailstorm until at least Wednesday as many Victorians return home after the Labour Day long weekend.

State Emergency Service director of operations Trevor White says the organisation had received more than 6000 calls for help following the thunderstorm on Saturday and expects more when people return from holidays to find their homes damaged.

Hailstones measuring up to 10cm in diameter came down across metropolitan Melbourne causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to homes, cars and businesses.

Mr White said it was fortunate no one was killed although several people were hospitalised after falling off roofs while trying to repair damaged caused by the hailstones.

"This was one of our wildest weekends of severe weather and the hailstorm event in Melbourne was the largest recorded in Melbourne's history," Mr White told reporters on Monday.

"We were very pleased to see there was no loss of life or major injury with the storm."

More than 500 SES volunteers, supported by SES members from NSW and South Australia, have been cleaning up the damage.

"Because the damage has been so extensive, and we have a backlog of 2000 calls, we expect we'll be busy right through until Wednesday," Mr White said.

"We anticipate there will be more calls for assistance later today as people return to their homes after a long weekend away."

Tropical weather and a low pressure system moving in from the west were to blame for the freak storm that turned Melbourne's streets into raging rivers and wreaked destruction on property.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said the tropical nature of the atmosphere played a big part in the creation of the storm and allowed hail to form up to the size of cricket balls.

Mr Carlyon stopped short of calling it the storm of the century, but said there was no one at the weather bureau who could remember a more severe weather occurrence.

"In a thunderstorm you need a strong updraft to keep ice in the clouds to let it build up and usually pea-sized hail will fall through the updraft as it gets heavier," Mr Carlyon said.

"But with the additional protracted moisture, larger amounts of hail were able to build up because of the much stronger updraft.

"And the very strong low pressure moving in from the west certainly helped - it was like all the ducks were lining up with everything coinciding over Victoria."

The storm eclipsed the last "storm of the century" in December 2004 when boats were used to rescue motorists on the Eastern Freeway when more than 100mm of rain - or the entire December average - fell in two hours.

The insurance industry is expecting 40,000 claims for home and car damage.

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has activated its Catastrophe Coordination Arrangements and established a taskforce to handle the massive inflow of claims.

Part of the roofs of the Southern Cross railway station and the nearby Etihad Stadium collapsed under the huge weight of water that fell in the downpour.

Vehicles in car yards in eastern Melbourne were badly damaged with their windscreens shattered and panels dented and roofs were torn off houses in the wild storm.

Home and vehicle insurer RACV says it has received 3000 claims but that figure is growing all the time.

"In my 10 years in the job it's the worst I've seen," said RACV claims officer John Simpson.