Cloud and rain will spread over a broad area of WA during the next three days, with some parts of the state likely to see around a month’s worth of rain in one day.

June is not typically a very wet time of year over northern and central districts of WA. In a typical June, these parts of the state would usually see about 10 to 20 mm of rain.

Some parts of the state could see that much rain over the next few days as moisture from the Indian Ocean fuels a large cloud band over the state.

The animation below shows cloud and rain spreading over WA’s Pilbara district from the northwest late on Monday morning.

Video: Observed cloud and rain over Australia on Monday, June 19, 2023.

Onslow Airport’s 24.6 mm during the 24 hours to 9am on Monday was more than half its monthly average and the heaviest June rain in four years. Thevenard Island’s 29.2 mm during the same period was close to 80 percent of its June monthly average.

The satellite image above also shows a band of cloud approaching the southwest of WA on Monday morning, which indicated the location of an approaching cold front.

Over the next two-to-three days, the cold front in the southwest will interact with the mass of cloud streaming in from the northwest to produce widespread rain across WA. The map below shows how much rain one computer model is predicting over WA between Monday and Wednesday this week.

Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the 72 hours ending at 8pm AWST on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.

The moisture from this system will also spread further east and fuel rain across SA on Wednesday and Thursday, and parts of southeastern Australia from Thursday.

There are also early indications that another round of widespread rain could affect parts of western, central and southern Australia towards the end of this week and early next week. Weatherzone’s meteorologists will be keeping a close eye on this developing system and providing more updates in the Weatherzone news feed later this week.