Vigorous cold front to impact Western Australia

A vigorous cold front is expected to sweep across Western Australia late Sunday into Monday, with a secondary front to follow overnight Monday into Tuesday.

Late Sunday afternoon, a vigorous cold front will approach the South West Land Division bringing the threat of damaging wind gusts of up to and exceeding 90km/h, particularly for coastal locations and elevated terrain. A large band of heavy showers and thunderstorm activity is also expected late Sunday and into Monday, with moderate to locally heavy falls possible.

In the wake of this initial front, conditions will ease briefly, before a secondary front moves into the area overnight Monday in Tuesday, reinforcing west northwesterly winds, potentially damaging at times (to 90km/h), particularly for southern areas, exposed coastal locations and elevated terrain.

This secondary front will produce a renewed burst of widespread shower activity and isolated thunderstorms across southern parts of the state with moderate to locally heavy falls likely to redevelop. Widespread accumulated rainfall totals of 30-50mm are expected over the 48-hour period with this system, with isolated heavy falls exceeding 50mm possible.

Winds will shift southwesterly behind this front, confining any damaging wind threat to far southern coastal parts of WA late Tuesday afternoon and evening, with shower activity expected to gradually ease.

Image 1: EC wind accumulation next 5 days. Image via Windy.comImage 2: GFS for 2pm Sunday afternoon as a band of showers, rain periods and storms approach. Image via WeatherWatch MetCentre.

Image 3: GFS accumulation precipitation next 5 days. Image via WeatherWatch MetCentre.