Australia Weather News

The Bureau of Meteorology says there is more rain to come for Perth later this week. - ABC

Perth is enduring its wettest June since 2005 after most corners of the city recorded more than 50 millimetres of rainfall in under 24 hours.

A severe weather warning was issued on Saturday for Western Australia's south-west, with a strong cold front delivering heavy rain and damaging winds across a wide area of the state.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the cold front mostly brought showers to the metropolitan area, with the highest rainfall totals up to 9:00am on Sunday recorded south-east of Perth in Bungendore with 77mm, followed by South Perth which saw 75mm.

Almost 60mm was dumped on the city centre.

Strong winds also lashed the city, with Rottnest Island recording a wind gust of 106 kilometres per hour just after 5:40pm on Saturday.

The severe weather warning was cancelled overnight, but the BOM said the cold front would continue to produce widespread areas of rain as it moved into northern and eastern agricultural areas.

Senior meteorologist Adam Conroy said the rain was very welcome after a dry start to winter.

"We've seen some pretty reasonable rainfall through a lot of the state, including Perth, with Perth itself running well above average now for June," he said.

"In fact, we're up to about 176mm for the month so far, which would make it the wettest June since 2005."

Perth's average rainfall for June is 124.5mm.

Wet weather far from over

The latest severe weather comes after a series of storms hit the state a fortnight ago, delivering winds in excess of 100kph, driving rain and whipping up dangerous surf along the coast.

The coastline bore the brunt of the storms, with erosion visible at several Perth metropolitan beaches.

The BOM has forecast yet another cold front to move through southern parts of the state later this week, something that would be welcomed by agricultural regions.

Mr Conroy said there was more rain to come.

"For Perth, we'll see showers mostly clear overnight [on Sunday], then it looks like it'll stay clear for the start of the working week," he said.

"Another cold front will move through later on Wednesday, so we'll see showers pick up again pretty dramatically.

"We might even see the risk of a thunderstorm Wednesday night into Thursday."

Farmers welcome downpour

WA Farmers Federation CEO Trevor Whittington said the weekend rain, combined with the forecast for later in the week, was good news for country areas.

"More is always welcome at this stage, but I suppose now we've got a solid start to June," he said.

"Moisture is certainly there, and now we just look for the sort of regular frontal movement every 7-10 days to keep coming through for the rest of the season."

Mr Whittington said the solid amount of rain would provide relief to many farmers and pastoralists, but described the situation in Ravensthorpe on the south coast as critical.

"They've had one of the driest [seasons] on record last year and they had no rainfall up until a couple weeks ago, and they need an awful lot to fill dams," he said.

"So whether they'll get enough to look after livestock is a question."

Perth forecast

  • Sunday:Showers increasing, 6-10mm. 20C
  • Monday:Partly cloudy. 11-20C
  • Tuesday:Partly cloudy. 10-21C
  • Wednesday:Showers, possible late storm. 8-20mm. 12-21C
  • Thursday:Showers, possible storm. 8-20mm. 11-17C
  • Friday:Possible morning storm, showers. 1-5mm. 7-16C
  • Saturday:Possible shower. 0-1mm. 7-17C
  • ABC