Fire Alert: Severe Weather Hits Perth, WA

Let's start off first with a look at the expected daytime maximum temperatures over the coming days. And on Friday we see already heat building right across Western Australia, reaching the mid 30s up into the low 40s across inland parts. This is being driven by surface or heat trough. This is dragging very hot air from the east and also the north east right across the south west land division. There is one area of exception though. That's the far southern coast with cooler southerly winds really only reaching the low 20s on Friday.

But then on Saturday, as we track that trough, it moves all the way to the West coast. So hot air does move all the way towards Perth and some of the eastern suburbs there, and then the mid 30s further south to places like Bunbury. We will see some afternoon sea breezes and southerly winds kicking in along the coast. But as you move inland, that's when they will really start to ramp up. So it will be a very hot night on Saturday and that heat will peak on Sunday for many people with this trough moving offshore, meaning all those winds can reach all the way to the coast, reaching 40 degrees in Perth and the low 40s for some of the eastern suburbs.

And then we do finally see some relief from Monday as this trough moves back onto the coast. That will allow for that cooler southwesterly wind to move over Perth, and some of those coastal suburbs during the afternoon. But hot northerly winds really starting to ramp up across the far south coast, so reaching the low to mid 30s, even high 30s all the way from Albany and over towards Esperance.

So with multiple hot days and warm nights you are expecting to see heatwave conditions. So looking at the heatwave warning from the three days from Friday, we see low to locally severe intensity heatwave conditions building. If we cycle through the next few days after that, we see severe heatwave conditions really building across the far south west of the state, including Perth, and then moving down along the south coast and over towards eastern parts of Western Australia early next week. So we'll cycle through that one more time. We can see severe intensity heatwave conditions across the South coast and really only easing up as we head into early to middle part of next week.

So heat waves are normal at this time of year across WA, but they can still create impacts, especially for those who are a bit more vulnerable to the heat, including pets and animals. And with the number of hot nights not dropping below 24 even 25 degrees in some cases, it will make for quite uncomfortable sleeping conditions. Not really give the body a chance to recover overnight.

In addition, high temperatures and gusty winds will drive dangerous fire weather, so we'll take a closer look at that fire danger situation. And with the fire danger ratings for Friday, we do see high to extreme fire dangers across much of western and south western parts of Western Australia. So zooming in here, we see extreme fire danger for areas towards the east and also towards the north east of Perth. We do have a number of active bushfires across eastern suburbs, and these high fire to extreme fire dangers could create challenging firefighting conditions.

On Saturday we do see those fire danger ratings start to dip down a little bit, but still remaining high right across the South West Land Division. Then on Sunday, we do see extreme fire danger ratings returning to areas towards the north east of Perth. So if you are in these areas currently impacted by bushfires do make sure to follow the latest advice from local emergency services.

In addition to this, because it is a hot and unsettled, we are expecting to see isolated thunderstorms developing across large parts of Western Australia. On Friday we see storms pretty much all interior districts except for coastal parts, and this area in yellow shows where we could see severe thunderstorms bringing damaging winds during Friday afternoon and into the evening period.

On Saturday as that trough moves towards the coast so to do the thunderstorms, you see damaging winds possible all the way from Jurien Bay up into southern parts of the Gascoyne. We could also see some lightning strikes over the northern suburbs of Perth, and that poses a concern because that could produce dry lightning and ignite new fires across the landscape.

And then as we head into Sunday, we do see storms really getting down into the far south west of the state. Severe thunderstorms bringing damaging winds are again possible, including around the Perth area.

So with very high temperatures coming through as well as dangerous fire weather conditions, it is important that you have the latest information and warnings. You can get these on our website and our app falls on social media. And as always, please stay safe.