WINTER Is about to hit Victoria a month ahead of schedule, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecasting a ‘very, very chilly outbreak’, including heavy rains, for the last half of this week.

Senior Meteorologist Keris Arndt from the Bureau of Meteorology Victoria said today that  while today, and most of tomorrow, will remain sunny and mild, everything changes from Wednesday onwards.

A significant cold front is forecast to bring rain beginning in the north east ranges in the early hours of Wednesday, spreading across the state over the course of the day, with flash flooding a possibility.

By Wednesday evening, it is likely that much of Victoria will have already eclipsed the total rainfall for 2019, with Melbourne already having received just six millimetres less rainfall so far this year than it did for the whole of last year.

Central and eastern areas of Victoria look set to receive 15-30mms of rain from Wednesday onwards, while the west of the state should get 5-20mm. 

Temperatures will plummet along with the rain, with local forecasts for maximums as low as  12ºC later in the week, and Melbourne forecast for a maximum of just 13ºC - eight to 10 degrees below its maximum average for April. 

Strong winds are also a possibility, and there is the potential for snow at as low as 1,000 metres in the ranges.