Australia Weather News

The reopening of the flooded highway network in WA's north has offered temporary relief for truckies and travellers, but weary residents are being warned the abnormally hectic cyclone season may be set to continue, with a chance of more severe weather and flooding next week.

Three tropical cyclones and an equally damaging tropical low have pummelled the West Kimberley coast in the past eight weeks, engulfing highways, tearing down trees and wearing down local volunteer SES crews.

Now, authorities are warning another tropical low could soon form off northern Australia.

"Early indications are that we could be looking at another tropical low as early as next week," Department of Fire and Emergency Services district superintendent Grant Pipe said.

"It's too early to say much, but it's likely that the Kimberley and the north-west of the state will once again be affected."

"I'm sure residents are becoming weary with it all.

"It is unusual, obviously we've already hit our rainfall totals for the year only a couple of months into the year, so that is abnormal."

Residents who have faced repeated clean-ups of storm-battered yards are again being urged to keep their properties prepared and monitor updates from the Bureau of Meteorology before making travel plans.

The situation was helped by the reopening of the Great Northern Highway on Tuesday morning, after the route was flooded and traffic cut-off both to the south and east of Broome.

"The roads are now open to essential traffic — so high-clearance 4WDs and trucks — but we're asking people to defer any non-essential travel," Mr Pipe said.

"These trucks are really about getting food supplies into the region, and also gas supplies for utilities.

"The roads are in a state of disrepair as you'd expect with that volume of water going over them … it's important that anyone driving on the roads is keeping an eye out for road workers and ensuring their safety."

Volunteers tired after hundreds of callouts

The fallout from tropical cyclones Hilda, Joyce and Kelvin has left State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers run ragged in recent weeks.

"Like everyone in the community, they are getting a bit weary," Broome State Emergency Service volunteer Nathan Donald said.

"We usually get two or three call-outs a year, and we've responded to hundreds of requests for assistance in the last couple of months, so it's certainly woken us up.

Mr Donald said the floodwaters meant crews needed to be flown on charter planes to properties along Eighty Mile Beach that were battered by the category two Cyclone Kelvin.

"We've sent a strike team of volunteers to Anna Plains station to assist them in their recovery from the impact. They were removing trees from roofs and patching up buildings to make them habitable again," he said.

"It was similar to what we've seen in Broome this wet season — trees on houses and blown out windows."

'Productive' cyclone season: BOM

The Bureau of Meteorology's Neil Bennett said there had been four cyclones and several tropical lows in the Kimberley region over the past month.

"This season so far has been quite productive, we've had a number of [cyclones] … we're on our fifth now," Mr Bennett said.

He said there could be more rain on the way on top of already record-breaking falls.

"There's a hint of tropical activity through the Kimberley … it's a burst of tropical activity which is quite normal for this time of year, but we are monitoring it very closely.

"It's certainly been one of the more active [cyclone seasons] over the last four or five years.

"But we did have a relatively quiet period for two or three years leading up into the 2016 and 2017 seasons."