Winter blast brings heavy dumping of snow and wild weather

The Early Years Academy Thurgoona was the worst hit when the storm hit around 2.30am with half of their solar panels flying off the roof.

Director Josie Saggers said they were able to open the centre at 7am as usual.

"We had a call from Essential Energy to say our power had been shut off due to some damage to our solar panels," she said.

"The SES were called and we were able to get some electricians in to isolate our power.

"A risk assessment was done and one part of the centre was shut off just in time for children to arrive.

"It was hard to picture the solar panels out on the road - some ended up in the playground and on the fence."

Albury SES received 10 calls for assistance including an air conditioner which was also ripped from a roof.

But unit commander Ian Leckie said the child care centre was the worst hit.

"The child care centre on Ava Avenue had all its solar panels ripped off the roof," he said.

"We are still getting call outs with trees over drive ways and things like that.

"Calls for assistance started coming in about 2.30am when the heavy downpour started hitting homes."

Commander Leckie said he expects more calls for assistance today and into the weekend.

"I think we will continue to see calls for assistance and will be working throughout the day to get tarps onto roofs and cleaning up what we can.

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"We had call outs in East Albury, Thurgoona and Glenroy.

"There was a fair bit of damage near the golf course at Glenroy as well."

The Bureau of Meteorology recorded 10.4 millimeters of rain in the 24 hours until 9am Friday.

Over the Border, Wodonga SES only received one call for assistance to a tree blocking a road.

Tallangatta SES were also called out to trees over the road after receiving calls for assistance at 3.30am.

"A great effort to get the roads back to 'normal' for a busy morning rush," the unit posted on Facebook.

"Thanks to VicRoads who were quick to organise help for some of the bigger jobs we weren't equipped to do ourselves."

The Alpine regions have seen the strongest blizzards of the year but have caused some road blocks for snow goers heading up this weekend.

The Great Alpine Road between Harrietville and Mount Hotham remains closed this morning due to heavy snow fall and poor visibility.

""The strongest blizzards of 2019 have swept the nation's south-east bringing heavy snowfalls to Mt Hotham," Mount Hotham's Chris Hocking said.

"Between 65-70cm of new snow has fallen in the last 48 hours with temperatures dipping to near minus 5 degrees.

"Excellent snowfalls are expected to continue into the weekend with up to 100cm of new snow possible.

"Snow could fall as low as 500 metres later today.

"Snow enthusiasts are looking forward to epic powder conditions in the coming days.

"The base depth at Mount Hotham is closing in on 1.5 metres."

A pole down caused 171 customers in Bright to be without power on Friday afternoon for around three hours.