Wet, wild, and windy in the southwest
The first of a series of cold fronts to impact the southwest over the coming days has already brought large wind gusts and rainfall to Western Australia's south, with conditions expected to only worsen with the arrival of another front.
As the first cold front impacted WA's south west coast late on Saturday evening, winds shifted westerly and brought gusts of almost 100km/h (Cape Leeuwin, 98km/h at 3am) to the region. So far the most impacted areas have been the Lower West and South West districts with a gust of 78km/h recorded at Cape Naturaliste and 76km/h at Garden Island in the early hours of Sunday morning. Periods of heavy rainfall have also occurred, Lancelin receiving 14mm overnight and Corrigin 12mm. While these might not appear to be large quantities, for Corrigin this is approximately 20 percent of their months' rainfall in just a few hours.
While cold fronts are typical weather systems for this time of year, a Severe Weather Warning for damaging winds is currently in place for South West, South Coastal and parts of Lower West and Great Southern districts due to the abnormally strong winds forecast. Another Gale Warning for all coasts along the state’s south is also in place, with both these warnings expected to remain as another, stronger cold front moves through late Sunday evening and into Monday. Damaging-to-destructive winds may average 80-90km/h, and gusts could peak above 125km/h for some parts, with moderate to heavy rainfall also forecast for the same districts.
Image: Forecast wind gusts for southern parts of Western Australia on Sunday evening.
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