Extreme weather system with turbulent winds and rain hit local towns across the Wheatbelt over the weekend

The Wheatbelt felt the effects of the wild weather that took place over the long weekend with chaotic winds and rain rushing through the region disrupting power supplies.

Powerlines were brought down by trees and homes lost power in Narrogin as the wind screamed through the streets of the town.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that much of the State from Perth to Esperance would be impacted by a significant weather system over the long weekend.

A strong cold front crossed the Wheatbelt and Great Southern on Saturday before being followed by a deep low pressure system through Sunday and into Monday morning, bringing damaging winds, rough seas and heavy rain.

According to BoM observations at the Wandering weather station, the lowest temperature recorded was 10.7 degrees at 8.30pm on Sunday, whilst the strongest wind gusts reached 70km/h at 8pm on the same night.

Wandering’s highest rainfall was 2.4mm at 9pm and 10pm on Sunday night.

Narrogin resident Gustavo Ramirez said the storm left his home powerless after poles fell half a block from where he lives.

“The power went off in my house so I went to check because there was a noise too,” he said.

“The pole and tree had fallen down and that happened around 1.40pm roughly on Sunday.

“There were lots of fallen trees and falling branches around.

“We had very strong winds, very cyclonic winds and showers on and off but it was very windy.”

Senior BoM meteorologist Angus Hines said it was a powerful storm, with the wind having the biggest impact.

“It’s certainly an uncommonly powerful storm, not something that we see every year and not even something necessarily that we’d see every five or so years, so it was an unusually powerful weather system,” he said.

“Most notably it was the power of the wind which most people would have noticed as it may be the most significant element of this weather event.

“We had been tracking this as a big weather system days in advance . . . and it certainly didn’t flop, it lived up to the expectations in regards to those very strong winds.”

Mr Hines said the wind speeds were slightly lower in the Wheatbelt than they were along coastal areas with most winds peaking at around 80 to 90km/h in the region.

“Cunderdin was 85km/h, Katanning 83km/h and Wandering was at 70km/h as our peak gusts during Sunday,” he said.

“Sunday afternoon, pushing into Sunday night, looks to have been the windiest time period.

“The peak gusts that we did see were on the south-western capes, so the absolute highest gusts that we saw in WA were 135km/h at Cape Naturalist.

“The rainfall in most areas was probably playing second fiddle to the strong winds, but we did see some reasonable rain accumulate over the course of the entire weekend.

“It was pretty wet on Saturday, and then some follow-up rainfall on Sunday as well.”

Mr Hines said the weather has calmed down with a much weaker cold front moving across bringing a few showers and lower winds.