WA Faces Heavy Rain, Damaging Winds in Weather Alert

We've already seen fairly widespread rain across that south-west corner of the state. Widespread totals of 15 to 40 mm, with some locations seeing even more. Now we have seen a few severe weather observations as well. We've seen high rainfall rates at Balingup and Manjimup. That means a lot of rain falling in a short space of time, which can lead to flash flooding in some cases. We've also seen a 111 km an hour wind gust at Cape Leeuwin. So this wet and windy system is certainly tapping into a lot of power from the atmosphere.

We can see some of that if we take a look at our water vapour imagery, which gives us an indication of what's going on through the atmosphere in terms of moisture. Now, looking at that south-west corner of Western Australia, we can see this stream of white and green colour moving in ahead of where our front is. That is a stream of moisture coming in off the Indian Ocean, fueling any showers and storms that are developing. We've got this browner area, the dry air coming in behind the front.

Now, with this high moisture content and risk of heavy falls, we do still have a severe weather warning current. This severe weather warning is for both heavy rainfall and damaging winds. Now it covers parts of the lower west and central west districts, as well as just clipping parts of the central Wheatbelt as well. In this area, we are likely to see rainfall rates reaching 25 to 50 mm over a 3 to 5 hour period, and the risk of wind gusts up to 90 km an hour as well.

These wet and windy conditions are most likely, with showers and thunderstorms pushing ahead of that cold front and in the few hours after it moves through as well. For Perth, that key risk time is from now until around the early afternoon. At that time, the system is expected to have moved far enough north and far enough east to put Perth back in the clear. But certainly all communities across this warning area should be aware of this risk of heavy rain and damaging wind gusts through the course of today.

Of course, this may lead to damage to trees and property as these strong winds move through. We could also see some hazardous driving conditions if we do get any flash flooding developing. For more of those inland parts of the south-west, we could also see fairly wet conditions for our growers and agricultural areas there.

Let's break down a look at how this front will move through now. So for today, this cold front is moving across that south-west corner of the state. It is likely to push across the Perth area through the course of this morning, pushing into the early afternoon. We are likely to see a heavier band of rain moving through, with the front trending back to patchier showers afterwards.

That band of rain is going to push to the east and to the north, with the front likely bringing some more widespread rainfall totals to the Wheatbelt and also to parts of the central west, and possibly even the Gascoyne too. Now for those areas further north, that wet weather risk is more as we go overnight tonight into tomorrow. You can see the rain pushing north there.

For Perth, we are likely to see that showery weather continuing through the course of our Wednesday. We've got another weak trough moving through here, but you can see that as we get towards the later part of Wednesday and push into Thursday our wet weather system has moved well out across south-eastern parts of Western Australia. Leaving much drier conditions across the South West Land Division and around the Perth area too.

Now, with that wet weather coming today and tomorrow, let's take a look at our rainfall totals. So these are our rainfall totals out to the end of Thursday. And they do include a lot of that rain that we've already seen through the early hours of this morning, as these rainfall totals come from midnight last night.

As you can see, our top rainfall accumulations are really focused about the south-west coast, parts of the central west coast too, where we could see above 50 mm over the next couple of days. Fairly moderate rainfall totals across parts of the Wheatbelt as well, pushing across some of those inland areas, parts of the Goldfields too. But in general, those rainfall totals do taper out the further east we go.

So with that risk of heavy rainfall and locally damaging winds through the rest of today, it is essential to stay updated with 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.