Spring winds that often plague East Gippsland have hit with a vengeance of late, stripping the surface moisture of paddocks extremely quickly.
Trees have been blown over and fences smashed, adding to the daily farming challenges.
On Monday, the Gippsland Research Farm weather station showed a soil temperature of 11.9 degrees, while the soil moisture at a depth of 20 centimetres was down to 73 per cent.
Fortunately, at the 90cm and 80cm mark the saturation is 100 per cent, with the figure only just dipping under 90 per cent at the 30cm mark.
During the year the highest rainfall at the site was in June at almost 80mm, followed by 70mm in April.
Also on Monday, the station recorded 3.4mm, with the year-to-date total sitting at 345.6mm.
The Bureau of Meteorology released a video update on Monday saying wind gusts across Victoria had reached up to 90 kilometres an hour, with some isolated gusts at 125km/hr.
Severe weather warnings extended from the east of South Australia, all the way along the coast and up into New South Wales as far as the Hunter Valley.
The Bureau also stated Lakes Entrance’s high tide may lead to the inundation of low-lying areas Monday night.
At the time of print, the Bureau said the winds would decrease with moisture expected on Friday and Saturday with up to 5mm for Friday and up to 4mm on Saturday.
Farmers will be hoping the moisture puts back some of what the wind has taken away.
