North WA has been hit by rain at a time when it is normally preparing for the annual dry season, while an explosion of polar air has caused a pre-winter cold in the south. state.
The weather event, which includes a cold front and a low-pressure system that affected several parts of WA from Saturday, will continue its record for the Pilbara region until Monday.
The Meteorological Office warned that the big cold snap would break most winter records, let alone the records of the last days of autumn.
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The island of Varanus recorded a record total daily rainfall for May of 158 mm, more than the previous maximum of only 102.6 mm on May 17 this year.
Newman also expects a record low temperature of 13 degrees on May on Tuesday, with the coldest previous day of the month set at 14.7 degrees in 2015.
Heavy rains have prompted warnings from the Fire and Emergency Services Department to prepare Pilbara residents to move to higher ground due to the threat of sudden “non-seasonal” flooding from Exmouth to Port Hedland. .
DFES warned that campers and caravanners near rivers were in danger, as bad weather was expected to create some dangerous conditions.
On Sunday morning, DFES also notified Western Australians of bad weather in northern WA via Twitter.
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There were also forced road closures for Nanjing Munjina Road and Paraburdoo Tom Price Road, as well as the Northwest Coast Road between Onslow and Karratha. Yarraloola station, 47 km west of Pannawonica, had a rainfall of 145.2 mm for two days until Sunday morning.
“It’s pretty unusual what’s going on up there right now so late in the season,” said Catherine Schelfhout, the BOM forecaster.
“There was a strong upper trough and tropical humidity coming down from far and wide to the northwest.
“Today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday) there will be heavy and heavy rains for all parts of the Pilbara and then west of Kimberley on Tuesday, there will still be potentially heavy rains that will be reduced on Wednesday.”
Ms Schelfhout said that although the south of WA did not receive significant rainfall, with a maximum of 17 mm recorded just west of Esperance at Neds Corner, it was really cold.
The Esperance recorded winds of 85 km / h with Hopetoun experiencing gusts of 83 km / h, both only marginally below what is normally considered “severe”. Cold temperatures of about 10 degrees remained at Esperance until Sunday morning.
“They’re getting a real increase in cold air going up,” Ms Schelfhout said.
“It is a strong water trough where the wind blows behind the cold front and directly from the Southern Ocean.
“It’s common to have cold fronts at this time of year, but this is a more significant flow to the south.”
Ms Schelfhout said southern storms had begun to move east towards South Australia on Sunday morning.
He expects SA, Victoria and NSW to be affected in the coming days and for both winds to drop and temperatures to rise a little further south of WA.
However, there were still some dangerous surfing conditions, with tides and waves higher than usual.
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