The start of this week has been dominated by dry and settled weather for the majority of Western Australia, but as we look forward to the end of the working week, conditions are set to deteriorate. From Friday, a deepening area of low pressure is going to track along the southern coast of Western Australia. Heavy rain and strong winds will accompany the system. The main rain band will hit the southwest on Friday afternoon, bringing 15-25mm of rainfall quite widely across the Lower West, South West and western parts of Great Southern and South Coastal, before the day is out. The strongest of the winds, on the systems northern flank, will occur from Saturday morning through until the early hours of Sunday; over this period, gusts exceeding 70 km/h are forecast along much of the coastline from Perth to Albany. Conditions will begin to settle down again early next week as a high pressure ridge builds in from the west.