UPDATE: RAIN and storms lashed parts of Victoria last night and further storms have been predicted this afternoon.

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Dean Stewart said the risk of storms in Melbourne was fairly low but high in the Western District.

“Out over on the western border and through parts of Western Victoria the chance of storms is higher but through Melbourne the chance is lower,” Mr Stewart said.

“There’s a slight chance we will see a storm (in Melbourne) and if we do see a storm it’s not likely to be as unstable and as severe as yesterday.”

Storms caused significant damage to the outer suburbs last night with about 50mm falling in Mernda in Melbourne’s north in about an hour.

Sunbury had about 38mm during the storms and there were reports of large hailstones.

There were also isolated thunder storms through north central Victoria and parts of Gippsland.

Mr Stewart said storms also extended as far west as Ballarat.

Christmas Hills, near Yarra Glen, copped 45mm during the storms.

Mount Elizabeth in Gippsland recorded 41mm last night, Nullaware had 32mm and Sale had 23mm.

Seymour saw rainfall total 23mm.

The State Emergency Service had a busy afternoon and evening with about 130 call outs from midday yesterday until 8am this morning recorded.

“The busiest was certainly in Sunbury and they started happening around 6pm,” a SES Victoria spokesman said.

“There were pretty severe hailstone about 3cm across.

“There were call outs in South Morang and Mernda, near Whittlesea, of predominantly flooding and building damage.”

The spokesman said it was lucky they hadn’t been called out to rescue anyone stuck in floodwaters.

There were several callouts overnight following trees falling down including in Dereel, south of Ballarat, this morning where a tree fell on a woman’s car.

The SES spokesman said she was shaken but fortunately uninjured.

He urged caution in the dangerous conditions, particularly ahead of the forecast storms today.

“The main message would be don’t take shelter under a tree, don’t park under a tree and never drive through flash flood waters,” he said.