00:00The risk of locally heavy rain and damaging winds continues today for parts of the west coast
00:05as a cold front moves through. Now that cold front did reach the far southwestern parts of
00:10Western Australia through the early part of this morning and it is currently moving to the north
00:16and to the east, about to reach Perth. We've already seen fairly widespread rain across that
00:21southwest corner of the state, widespread totals of 15 to 40 millimetres, with some locations
00:27seeing even more. Now we have seen a few severe weather observations as well. We've seen high
00:33rainfall rates at Bellingup and Manjamup. That means a lot of rain falling in a short space of time,
00:39which can lead to flash flooding in some cases. We've also seen a 111 kilometre an hour wind gust
00:46at Cape Lewin. So this wet and windy system is certainly tapping into a lot of power from the
00:52atmosphere. We can see some of that if we take a look at our water vapour imagery, which gives us
00:57an indication of what's going on through the atmosphere in terms of moisture. Now looking
01:02at that southwest corner of Western Australia, we can see this stream of white and green colour
01:08moving in ahead of where our front is. That is a stream of moisture coming in off the Indian
01:13Ocean, fuelling any showers and storms that are developing. We've got this brown area, the
01:19dry air coming in behind the front. Now with this high moisture content and risk of heavy falls,
01:26we do still have a severe weather warning current. This severe weather warning is for both heavy
01:31rainfall and damaging winds. Now it covers parts of the lower west and central west districts,
01:37as well as just clipping parts of the central wheat belt as well. Now in this area, we are likely to see
01:42rainfall rates reaching 25 to 50 millimetres over a three to five hour period, and the risk of wind gusts
01:49up to 90 kilometres an hour as well. Now these wet and windy conditions are most likely with showers and
01:56thunderstorms pushing ahead of that cold front, and in the few hours after it moves through as well.
02:03For Perth, that key risk time is from now until around the early afternoon. At that time, the system
02:09is expected to have moved far enough north and far enough east to put Perth back in the clear. But certainly,
02:15all communities across this warning area should be aware of this risk of heavy rain and damaging wind
02:21gusts through the course of today. Of course, this may lead to damage to trees and property as these
02:28strong winds move through. We could also see some hazardous driving conditions if we do get any
02:33flash flooding developing. For more of those inland parts of the southwest, we could also see fairly wet
02:39conditions for our growers and agricultural areas there. Let's break down a look at how this front will
02:46move through now. So for today, this cold front is moving across that southwest corner of the state.
02:53It is likely to push across the Perth area through the course of this morning, pushing into the early
02:58afternoon. We are likely to see a heavier band of rain moving through with the front, trending back to
03:04patchier showers afterwards. Now, that band of rain is going to push to the east and to the north with
03:10the front, likely bringing some more widespread rainfall totals to the wheat belt and also to
03:15parts of the central west and possibly even the Gascoyne too. Now, for those areas further north,
03:21that wet weather risk is more as we go overnight tonight into tomorrow. You can see the rain pushing
03:26north there. For Perth, we are likely to see that showery weather continuing through the course of our
03:32Wednesday. We've got another weak trough moving through here. But you can see that as we get
03:37towards the later part of Wednesday and push into Thursday, our wet weather system has moved well out
03:42across southeastern parts of Western Australia, leaving much drier conditions across the southwest
03:48land division and around the Perth area too. Now, with that wet weather coming today and tomorrow,
03:55let's take a look at our rainfall totals. So these are our rainfall totals out to the end of Thursday,
04:00and they do include a lot of that rain that we've already seen through the early hours of this
04:04morning, as these rainfall totals come from midnight last night. As you can see, our top
04:09rainfall accumulations are really focused about the southwest coast, parts of the central west coast
04:15too, where we could see above 50 millimetres over the next couple of days. Fairly moderate rainfall
04:20totals across parts of the wheat belt as well, pushing across some of those inland areas, parts of the
04:25gold fields too. But in general, those rainfall totals do taper out the further east we go.
04:32So with that risk of heavy rainfall and locally damaging winds through the rest of today,
04:37it is essential to stay updated with the latest forecasts and warnings via the Bureau's website,
04:42the BOM Weather app and via our social media. Stay safe and we'll catch you next time.
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