Two cold fronts will bring rain, thunderstorms and blustery winds to southwestern Australia during the next five days, continuing Perth’s wet start to winter.
The satellite images below show a cold front passing over the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, approaching Australia from the west. This front will reach the southwest of WA on Thursday and deliver a burst of rain, storms and wind during Thursday and Friday.
Rain and possible storms will initially affect the state’s far southwest from Thursday morning before spreading to Perth and other areas of the South West Land Division in the afternoon and evening. Damaging wind gusts are possible in the state’s southwest with the passage of the front on Thursday.
On Friday, rain will also extend up to the Gascoyne, across the Central Wheatbelt and Goldfields and down to the state’s south coast.
The map below shows how much rain one computer model is predicting between now and the end of Friday.
Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the three days ending at 8pm AWST on Friday.
Another front will then approach the state on the weekend, causing rain, storms and wind to reintensify across the west and southwest of WA on Saturday and Sunday.
The heaviest rain on the weekend is expected to fall along the west coast, although useful rain should also extend across parts of the Wheatbelt and southern Goldfields.
Damaging winds are likely to affect some western and southwestern parts of WA on Sunday as a powerful surge of westerlies pushed in behind the cold front. Severe weather warnings are likely to be issued closer to Sunday for this system.
Image: Forecast wind gusts at 5pm AWST on Sunday, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.
Stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings during the rest of this week for the most accurate information on these cold fronts.
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