Australian Weather

26 Jun 2026, 11:34PM UTC

Southwest WA has been battered by a strong cold front and associated low-pressure system since Thursday evening, bringing blustery winds, widespread rain, showers and thunderstorms that are still affecting the region on Saturday morning. Image. Overnight satellite and radar animation showing widespread showers sweeping across southwest WA into Saturday morning. The highest wind gusts recorded at WA locations were:  Cape Leeuwin: 109 km/h at about 2:20 am Saturday  Cape Naturaliste: 100 km/h shortly before 6 pm Friday  Busselton Jetty: 93 km/h at about 1:40 am Saturday  Rottnest Island: 91 km/h at about 5 am Saturday  Mandurah: 89 km/h shortly before 5 am Saturday  Witchcliffe: 83 km/h at about 3:30 am Saturday  Garden Island: 83 km/h at about 10:35 pm Friday  These observations show that the strong winds extended well beyond the far southwest corner, with gusts approaching 90 km/h reaching Mandurah and Rottnest Island during the early hours of Saturday.  Widespread rain recorded across southwest WA  The cold front and low have also produced widespread rain across western, southwestern and southern WA since Friday.  In the 24 hours to Friday morning, widespread falls of 20 to 43 mm were recorded across western and southwestern WA, with the heaviest rain concentrated over the state’s far southwest corner.  In the 24 hours to 6:20 am AWST on Saturday, falls of 10 to 20 mm have been common across a broad area, while several locations in the South West and nearby inland districts have recorded more than 20 mm.  Significant rainfall observations in the 24 hours to 6:20 am AWST on Saturday included:  Dwellingup: 38 mm — its highest June daily total in two years  Donnybrook: 35.5 mm — its highest June daily total in two years  Boddington Mine: 27.8 mm  Manjimup: 25.4 mm  Collie: 24.0 mm — its highest June daily total in five years  Bridgetown: 21.1 mm  Rocky Gully: 20.5 mm — its highest June daily total in two years  A Severe Weather Warning remains in place on Saturday morning for parts of the South West district.  Isolated damaging wind gusts of 90 to 110 km/h remain possible with showers and thunderstorms between Bunbury and Windy Harbour, including Busselton, Margaret River, Augusta and Dunsborough.  Wild weather easing during Saturday  The low-pressure system was moving southeast on Saturday morning, allowing the strongest winds to gradually shift away from the southwest coast.  The damaging wind threat should ease during the morning, although showers, thunderstorms and locally strong gusts may continue for a time.  Roads may remain wet, while fallen trees, branches and loose debris could continue to affect some areas following the overnight weather. Residents should continue to monitor the latest warnings and observations as the system moves away from the region. 

26 Jun 2026, 3:20AM UTC

A pair of large rainbands will sweep across Australia over the coming week, delivering widespread rain to several states. Two upper-level low pressure systems will pass to the south of Australia next week, helping draw moisture-laden air over the country. This infeed of moisture will occur from both the east and the west, allowing humid air from the Coral Sea and Indian Ocean to move over the country, providing fuel for rainfall. This weather pattern is expected to cause showers across the southern half of Australia and along the country's east coast this weekend and next week. However, the heaviest falls are expected to occur in Australia’s southeast inland – across the Murray-Darling Basin – where two rainbands could deliver accumulated falls of 50-100 mm over the next seven days. Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the seven days ending at 10 pm AEST on Thursday, July 2, 2026. Source: Weatherzone. The first rainband will cross the Murray-Darwin Basin on Monday and Tuesday next week. This will be followed by a second rainband between Wednesday and Friday. While there is some uncertainty regarding where and how much rain these two rainbands will deliver, there is good agreement between forecast models that the rain will affect a broad area of Victoria, New South Wales and southwest Queensland. Why so much rain in El Niño The forecast of rain may come as a surprise following last week’s El Niño declaration from the Bureau of Meteorology. El Niño typically causes below average rain in Australia. One of the reasons Australia is about to see decent rain in El Niño is due to the competing influence of another climate driver: the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). The SAM is an index that measured the north-south displacement of a belt of westerly winds that flows around Antarctica, passing to the south of Australia. When the SAM is positive in winter, the westerly wind belt shifts further south. This can cause cold fronts and lows to pass to the south of Australia, while allowing high pressure systems to drive moisture-laden winds over Australia from the east. The SAM is currently very strongly positive, with the index reaching +4.41 on June 24, which is the highest value since May 2023. This positive SAM is helping draw moisture over Australia from the east, which will enhance rainfall from next week’s rainbands. Does this mean it will be a wet winter? Despite the coming week’s wet weather, seasonal forecast models are still predicting below-average rain over much of eastern and southeastern Australia this winter due to the influence of a strong El Niño in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Image: Seasonal rainfall outlook for the July to September period in 2026. Source: Bureau of Meteorology. So, while this month’s strong positive SAM shows we can still see periods of heavy rain in Australia during El Niño, the outlook is still favouring drier-than-normal weather in the coming months.