THE heaviest July rainfall in over a decade looks set to drench parts of the WA's Central Wheatbelt region, according to UBIMET, an internationally recognised leader in meteorology and severe weather warnings.
For many locations throughout this vital agricultural area these coming rains are expected to be the heaviest for July since 2001.
“Between 30mm and 50mm of rain is expected, something the region hasn’t experienced in July for at least 14 years and indeed for some locations over 50 years," UBIMET Chief Meteorologist Felim Hanniffy said.
"Thunderstorm activity could bring localised much heavier totals.
“We expect to issue orange to red warnings – two of our more serious alerts – as a result of the heavy rain.”
After what has been an unseasonably dry winter so far, parts of the Central Wheatbelt region finally received some much needed totals earlier this week with 20 to 30mm recorded.
“We understand that rain or lack of rain at this time of the year can be the decider between a bumper or poor crop yield for the coming year, and this region is likely to experience some much needed replenishing rains,” Felim said.
A broad low pressure system and associated troughs is expected to drift slowly across south-western parts of the state through Friday and Saturday resulting in widespread heavy rain.
UBIMET is expecting the heaviest of the rain to develop later Thursday for western areas before affecting more inland regions on Friday and Saturday.
Embedded thunderstorm activity is also likely to be a feature of the weather over this period bringing the potential for localised heavy falls.
The system will also bring around 30-50mm of rain to Perth during Thursday afternoon and into Friday morning.
“Thunderstorm activity could cause some localised flooding in places, particularly across the more northern suburbs,” Felim said.
