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 WA: Wet, windy and warm in the south
A pair of cold fronts affected southern WA today, bringing high winds, temperatures approaching 30C in the SE, and welcome widespread though patchy rain across the Central West, South West, Wheat Belt and Great Southern. Heavy showers were reported last night with the first cold front, which crossed Cape Leeuwin early evening. Most of the South West registered 10 to 30mm in the gauge at 9 this morning. However, a secondary low pressure system developed on the second cold front as it approached the South West during the day, making it significantly more intense than the first as the low skirted the South Coast overnight into Sunday. Wind gusted to 130km/h at Cape Leeuwin at 6.02pm, just before the front crossed. Further heavy showers accompanied this front, this time penetrating into the Central Wheat Belt and along the coast north of Perth (see downpours). In the 24 hours to 9am Sunday, a broad band from the Central Coast through the Wheat Belt to east of Albany registered 10 to 20mm.
In the 2 days to 9am Sunday, the rain from this system totalled 15 to 50mm of rain SW of a line from Geraldton to Esperance. Some of the best totals were Jarrahwood 40.4, Dwellingup 32.0 and Donnybrook 30.4 in the South West; Cunderdin 16.6 and Toodyay East 23.8 in the Wheat Belt; and Chamingup 29.0, Corrigin 25.6 and Beverley 21.0 in the Great Southern. Perth, and particularly the ranges to the east, fared best, with 55.4 at Mundaring and around 15 to 25mm on the coastal plain. Perth Airport recorded 25.6mm, bringing its winter rainfall so far to 191.8 compared to an average of 449.2.
TAS: Gales continue. Gale to storm force westerlies continued to buffet TAS today. Maatsuyker Island has had two 2000+km wind run days in succession, with 2013km on the anemometer this morning following a recording of 2018km yesterday morning. This translates to an average wind speed of 84km/h over the 48 hour period to 9am. 2000+km wind runs occur several times each year on the island, but only rarely for two days in a row. Wind gusts there have been well above 100km/h for the past four days, with the top gust yesterday reaching 135km/h. Hobart City's average windspeed for the past 3 days has been 28.5km/h, considerably less breezy than Maatsuyker, but still well above the August average of 12.2km/h. Light snow fell through the day on the Central Plateau, Liawenee reporting a 2cm cover at 9am. |
