Severe Weather Update Friday 23 August 2024: Damaging wind gusts and thunderstorms for southern WA

Published: Aug 22, 2024 Duration: 00:03:24 Category: Science & Technology

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Introduction A strong cold front will impact southern parts of Western Australia early on Saturday, bringing significant thunderstorm activity and damaging wind gusts to many. Let's start by looking at the synoptic map. Now for Friday synoptic map we've got this little band of showers and gusty winds, but this is the real deal out here to the west, approaching through the very early hours of Saturday, probably reaching the coastline sometime around four or 5 a.m. shortly before sunrise, and then racing through the Perth region and then across the course of the morning moving out towards the Esperance coast as this front goes through and for several hours after it has passed overhead, there will be very strong winds blowing across this area. We'll expect to see the westerly winds from this direction here race across southern parts of WA throughout the morning on Saturday into the afternoon as well. And that wind is our primary focus for severe weather. severe weather warning This is a severe weather warning for damaging wind gusts that stretches from Jurien Bay here north of Perth down to the Esperance area, including the entire Perth region. Through this yellow area here, we could see wind gusts of 90 to 100 kilometres an hour kicking off very early in the day on Saturday through the morning into the afternoon as well. Throughout the second half of the day, the strong wind area will contract to the south as the wind eases across these regions, but continues to blow strongly about the south coast. When we have winds the strong, there are a number of impacts impacts which may occur, including some of these here. We could see trees and branches down, potentially across roads and maybe onto property as well. There is the potential for power outages around south western WA this weekend and maybe some damage to loose structures like outdoor furniture, trampolines, fences and maybe the odd roof tile. if it's not tethered down correctly. While wind is the primary focus other weather there will be some other weather going on at the same time as well. It's quite clear we've got some showers and rain moving through at the same time. And in fact, not just any showers and rain, we could well have some significant thunderstorms caught up in this band, also affecting southern parts of Western Australia throughout Saturday morning. This is a map of thunderstorm risk for the day on Saturday. And in particular, I want to draw your attention to the yellow area, which covers pretty much the same area as the severe weather warning from Jurien Bay down through Perth across to somewhere just east of Esperance. This yellow region is where severe thunderstorms are possible and if we get severe thunderstorms it will be because they are generating even stronger wind gusts. So it's already a windy day. You might then get some thunderstorms which bring some even stronger, even punchier wind gusts through south western parts of the area here and if these thunderstorms do occur along with the strong winds, they will bring some rainfall as well. rainfall In general, the rainfall expected on Saturday will be moderate for many areas between five and 20 millimetres. However, parts of the far south west, mostly south of Perth, down to the likes of Busselton and Bunbury, could see some heavier falls, particularly if those thunderstorms do ramp up and get going through the morning hours. The potential is there for 30, 40, maybe 50 millimetres over a fairly short space of time. So it will be a very active start to the weekend for that weather across the south west. Stay up to date with the forecasts and warnings at the Bureau website and app, stay safe, look after one another. Thanks for watching.

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