Wild weather sweeps across Great Southern as strong wind, rain and rough seas batter the region hard

The Great Southern was battered by wild weather over the weekend, with strong winds and rain sweeping across the region bringing down trees, disrupting power supplies and leaving hundreds of residents without electricity. Trees fell across properties, branches were snapped onto driveways, outdoor furniture was blown over and a yacht sunk on Saturday night at the Princess Royal Sailing Club as the weather system moved through southern WA. The Bureau of Meteorology warned that much of the State from Perth to Albany would be impacted by a significant weather system over the long weekend. A strong cold front crossed the 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 recorded at Albany airport, the lowest temperature recorded was 11.9 degrees at 6pm on Sunday, while the strongest wind gusts reached 76km/h at 2.30pm and 72km/h at 10pm. Albany’s highest rainfall on Sunday was 2.8mm at midnight, with a total of 8mm fallen at 1pm Monday. The Lower King area experienced high tides, on Monday, with large parts of Esplanade Road flooded. There was 7.8mm of rainfall in the hour between between 11pm and midnight on Saturday. Despite the scenes experienced elsewhere in the State, Albany largely escaped major damage. Albany State Emergency Service area manager Ben Whittle said crews had not received any call outs or reports of storm damage on Monday morning calling it “a nice, quiet one” in Albany. Mr Whittle said a team of three Albany SES volunteers had been deployed to Bunbury to assist with storm recovery efforts there. The wild weather system caused widespread power outages throughout the Great Southern. According to Western Power on Monday morning, several small outages occurred around Albany with 31 people affected in King River and Lower King, 19 customers affected in Robinson, Scotsdale and Shadforth and 20 people affected in Napier and the Kalgan. The largest power outages were recorded further east with 562 customers affected across West Fitzgerald, Borden, Jerramungup and Ravensthorpe, while a further 307 people affected in the Wellstead, Boxwood Hill and Gairdner area. Further outages were located in the Tambellup area with 149 people affected, 168 customers affected in the Mt Barker, Porongurup region and 17 people near Narrikup. Western Power estimated all power would be restored by 6.30pm Monday. BOM spokesperson Casey McCarthy said some of the strongest winds were recorded towards the east of the Great Southern. “We saw some very damaging to destructive winds across the southern part of WA over the past day and those top wind gusts were 108km/h at Jerramungup and 107km/h at Ravensthorpe overnight,” he said. Mr McCarthy said in Albany, the average wind speed was 30 to 40km/h overnight with slight rainfall. “In terms of rainfall figures, we’ve seen some higher totals more to the west of the region, but in the Great Southern it’s generally still under about 10mm,” he said. Mr McCarthy said showers were continuing around the Albany and Denmark areas although rainfall totals were expected to remain relatively light. He said the severe weather warning had shifted east towards Esperance and the Eucla district but windy conditions would continue across Albany. “We can still see winds persisting through 30 to 40km/h and then those gusts a little bit higher than that,” he said. “It’s still a windy day today through Albany and adjacent areas, but that warning area shifted east. “Temperatures are generally around 16 to 17 degrees as a maximum. “It’ll feel cooler with those south-westerly winds, and we do have a coastal hazard warning as well, for surf and abnormally high tides, and that stretches right across the south coast.” Mr McCarthy said conditions were expected to gradually ease on Tuesday, although a weaker front could still bring coastal showers and fresh winds to the region.