Nearly two dozen drivers have been stranded along the Princes Highway after multiple potholes damaged car tyres during a heavy deluge of rain and wild weather across Victoria.

The vehicles were forced to pull over after hitting a pothole on the major arterial road near the rural town of Bunyip in Gippsland, a Transport Victoria spokesman said. Some drivers were forced to change their tyres.

Footage posted on social media sites shows more drivers were forced to pull over nearby, on Abeckett Road, after reportedly hitting a different pothole.

Monday is set to be the wettest and windiest day of this week, with rain easing on Tuesday. Another cold front is due to hit on Wednesday, when there will be noticeable changes in air temperature, a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said.

More rain will shower the state on Friday.

Rutherglen, in the state’s north-east, recorded 51 millimetres of rain overnight – the most rain to hit the town in a 24-hour period in 114 years.

The weather station of Hunters Hill, located along the Murray River near Towong, received more than 87 millimetres of rain in the same period, breaking a 21-year record, while Bendigo had its wettest August day in 36 years.

There was plenty of rain over the alpine region overnight, but it wasn’t cold enough to fall as snow. Some snowfall is predicted to fall later on Monday.

“The snow hasn’t been as good as expected, even with high rainfall totals over the area, it has mostly fallen as rain,” a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said.

The SES responded to 158 requests for assistance over the past 24 hours, mostly for downed trees. There were also several flood rescues amid flood warnings issued across the state.

The Hume region has been hit the hardest by the wild weather, an SES spokesperson said.

“With rainfall continuing into the day and river levels rising, we’re asking people to remain vigilant and to never enter flood water,” a spokesperson said.

The SES and the BOM have issued several warnings for floods, mostly across the Hume region, and damaging winds in the alpine areas with peak gusts of up to 100km/h possible.

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