Damaging Winds Hit Western Australia Sunday

But the second cold front has the potential to bring winds that this part of Western Australia usually only sees around five times a year, with these winter cold fronts. To get a clearer picture of how this will play up, let's take a look at the winds. Now I'm looking at winds above the surface around 1.5km above the surface. The reason I'm doing this is that it gives us a good indication of the strength of the wind gusts that any showers or thunderstorms moving through might bring down to the surface. We're really focused on the reds and the pinks in this map, as that shows us where those winds might reach the damaging winds threshold of 90km an hour.

Now, this is today's cold front. You can see the strong winds streaming in ahead of the system. As that cold front moves east today, we're going to see that strong wind risk pulling away to the south. We're still likely to see gusty conditions across south-western parts of Western Australia, but the acute risk of damaging winds is likely to ease somewhat through today. Then we're likely to see another burst of strong winds coming in with this second cold front here. Those stronger winds are likely to reach the south-west corner of the state late on Saturday. Going into the overnight period, they'll extend further overnight, likely reaching the Perth area around sunrise and then continuing to push north and east through the day as this cold front pulls them eastwards.

As you can see, broad parts of the south-west are likely to see some of these strong and gusty winds through tomorrow, with that risk of damaging winds for many areas. As this cold front moves eastwards through the remainder of Sunday, going into early Monday, the risk of damaging winds will gradually ease, pulling away first to the coast and then clearing completely through the early part of next week.

Now, in anticipation of this damaging wind risk tomorrow, we have issued a Severe Weather Warning for damaging winds. It covers most of the south-west coastal districts of Western Australia, as well as the Central Wheatbelts, the Great Southern and parts of the Goldfields Districts. Again, the risk of damaging winds is likely to reach the far south-western parts of this warning area late today, late Saturday, and then it will gradually extend through the remainder of the warning area on Sunday.

Most of these damaging wind gusts will be driven by showers and thunderstorms. We can see that very clearly if we look at our thunderstorm forecast for Sunday. It looks almost exactly the same as our severe weather warning area for damaging winds. This yellow area on our thunderstorm outlook shows us where severe thunderstorms are possible. As you can see, severe thunderstorms are possible across much of the south-west, and it's that risk of severe thunderstorms that's likely to bring damaging wind gusts to our south-western areas, particularly as the cold front moves through.

Now key hazards we're focusing on. Those strong winds could bring damage to trees, tree limbs and powerlines, possibly leading to damage to properties, cars and possible power outages. We may also see some damage to crops and agriculture as those strong winds move throughout inland growing areas, and we could also see some dangerous conditions along the coasts, with large seas and swells, potentially leading to coastal erosion in some areas.

This weekend, as the strong winds move through, particularly on Sunday, it is essential to stay on top of the latest forecasts and warnings via the Bureau's website, the BOM Weather app, and via our social media. Stay safe and we'll catch you next time.