Tasmania and parts of Victoria have been warned to batten down the hatches and brace for power outages as one of winter’s most significant storm systems moves through.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Tuesday issued severe weather warnings for damaging winds across Victoria, Tasmania, and parts of NSW, South Australia and Western Australia.

There are also flood watches for Tasmania’s major rivers and parts of the north-west coast.

Victoria’s State Emergency Service has urged the community to prepare for winds of up to 100km/h from Tuesday afternoon and into Wednesday, with gusts of up to 130km/h near the state’s alpine peaks.

Western, southern and eastern Tasmania can expect average winds of 60km/h to 70km/h, with peak gusts of up to 125km/h in parts of the east coast between Swansea and Orford until Tuesday night.

Forecaster Weatherzone said the “powerful and dangerous” weather system was one of the strongest cold fronts of 2024 and would bring dangerous gusts.

“The large, multicentred, low-pressure complex between Antarctica and Australia is currently deepening and could have central pressure of around 930 hectopascals later Tuesday into Wednesday. This is equivalent to a category four or five tropical cyclone on the Australian scale,” it said on Tuesday.

Weatherzone said Tasmania would be hit hardest.

“The strongest winds will occur in western, southern and eastern Tasmania, where gusts are expected to reach up to about 110km/h in low-lying areas and above 125km/h about elevated terrain and along parts of the state’s east coast,” it said.

There will be two days of blustery winds across Victoria, although the greatest risk of damaging winds will be for elevated and coastal regions.

Weatherzone said damaging winds were also likely in south-east NSW from late on Tuesday, spreading in central areas on Wednesday.

The warnings follow wild storms on Sunday night that left thousands without power until Monday morning.

This Advice – Severe Weather is for Central and southern parts of Victoria including Alpine areas.

Stay informed and be aware of potential hazards caused by the severe weather.

More details at https://t.co/1GEOddmNFE pic.twitter.com/ckUVhG7rFm

— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) August 27, 2024

Emergency service volunteers in Victoria had received 600 calls since Sunday afternoon with hundreds of trees down across the state, chief operations officer Tim Wiebusch said.

He said there had been 100 requests for assistance in the 24 hours to 11am on Tuesday, as he urged people to prepare for more severe weather.

“It’s important for community members to act now and take steps to protect their lives and property ahead of the forecast adverse weather, and in turn reduce their likelihood of needing emergency assistance,” Wiebusch said.

Residents were encouraged to secure loose items such as outdoor furniture and trampolines and to park away from trees.

Meanwhile, AusNet urged Victorian customers to prepare for potential power outages, and said life support customers should be ready to activate their emergency plan.

“Have battery-operated torches and radios in a place easy to access,” a spokesman said.

“Charge your battery packs so they’re ready to power your mobile phones [and] keep some cash on hand in case electronic payment systems go down during an outage.”

Powercor was also monitoring the weather and had boosted field crew, network operators and customer specialists before the storms.

“It’s important to have a plan and know what you would do if the power does go out – charge your phones, laptops and other devices, know how to open your garage door manually, and know where to turn for information,” head of network control Peter Galey said.

-with AAP