Australia Weather News

A severe cold front has brought damaging winds, heavy rainfall and plummeting temperatures to Perth and southern WA, with thousands of properties blacked out and the roof of one house ripped off.

Trees and powerlines were brought down as the system hit coastal areas about 1:00am on Thursday night, delivering strong wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour.

A two-storey home on Shorehaven Boulevard in Alkimos in Perth's northern suburbs had its roof torn off and thrown about 50 metres down the road.

Emergency services received a number of other calls for help and were expecting more as the day continued.

About 10,000 properties lost electricity, with Western Power still working to restore services to more than 2,000 customers at 3:00pm, mostly in the towns of Toodyay and Mullewa.

Other areas that were badly affected by power outages included the Perth suburbs of Duncraig, Riverton and Waterford, along with the towns of Seabird and Guilderton.

Heavy rainfall saw Bickley in Perth's south-east receive 22.6 millimetres overnight, while Harvey in the South West region recorded the largest dump, with 33.4mm falling in its gauge before 5:00am.

Monster swell pounds coast

The storm also whipped up a monster swell along the coast, with Cape Naturaliste and Albany recording wave heights of up to 5 metres early on Friday morning.

The swell was expected to rise further throughout the day.

The leading edge of the cold front was heading inland over central areas on Friday, but following in its wake was a very cold and unstable air mass.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned Perth and the south-west of WA would continue to experience cold, wintry and potentially dangerous conditions throughout the day.

It said a cold south-westerly flow coming off the ocean could lead to continued squally conditions, heavy showers, possible thunderstorms, the risk of small hail and potentially some snow flurries atop the Stirling Ranges in the Great Southern.

A severe weather warning for Perth was cancelled on Friday morning but raft of other warnings remained in place elsewhere, and motorists were urged to take care on the roads, particularly if caught up in Good Friday traffic.

Perth weather forecast

  • Friday:Showers, heavy at times, possible storm, 11–16C
  • Saturday:Morning shower or two, 7–18C
  • Sunday:Cold morning, sunny, 5–22C
  • Monday:Sunny, 8–24C
  • Tuesday:Mostly Sunny, 11–25C
  • Wednesday:Sunny, 12-26C
  • Thursday:Sunny, 14-28C
  • ABC