Weather News

Heaviest Perth rain in 287 days

Anthony Sharwood, Wednesday May 29, 2024 - 11:20 AEST

Glorious soaking rain has fallen in Perth, with 26.2 mm collecting in the gauge overnight after frequent showers throughout the 24-hour period to 9 am Wednesday.

It's the city's heaviest daily rainfall total since August 16, 2023, a span of 287 days.

It's also the first time since September 14, 2023, that Perth has registered a daily rainfall total in double digits (more than 10 mm).

Here at Weatherzone, we try not to "cheer" for any type of weather because one person's run of lovely sunny days can be another person's unwanted dry spell. But we're confident that virtually everybody in southwest WA would welcome the wet weather which has delivered significant totals across the South West Land Division in recent days.

The coastal city of Bunbury, about two hours south of Perth, saw one of the heaviest falls in the region with 72.6 mm to 9 am Wednesday.

Areas inland tended to see lighter falls than the coast, but numerous areas in the wheat belt still saw 10 mm or more.

"It's an absolute relief," southwest WA local Michael Thorn told Weatherzone.

"But that's qualified. The rain will need to continue throughout winter otherwise the damage to the environment and especially the forests, will be a disaster."

Weatherzone covered the issue of jarrah trees dying in southwest WA's big dry in this story in April in which we spoke to James Holbeach who has a property at Morangup in the Perth Hills. We caught up with James again today and he echoed Thorn's thoughts after receiving heavy overnight rain.

"It is so relieving to finally see proper rain, puddles forming, and water gushing into almost empty tanks," Holbeach said.

"The 35 mm so far out of this system has doubled our total rainfall since November, and the next week is looking good too.

"Unfortunately it was too late for a huge number of trees that didn't survive the extraordinary summer but better late than never!

Awesome to see some good rain ????? in #Perth finally after record breaking hot and dry #weather over the past 8 months. Sets us up nicely for the long weekend with more heavy rain to follow & a #T20WorldCup to watch. Can’t wait! pic.twitter.com/rcdDUDGtiY

— Shounak (@Shounak_WA) May 29, 2024

The good news is that showers are on the cards for the rest of the week in southwest WA, with another burst of heavy showers forecast for the weekend, with the heaviest rain likely on Saturday.

That might put a dampener on the West Coast Eagles vs St Kilda AFL match at Optus Stadium starting at 4:35 pm on Saturday, but again, we have a feeling that not too many locals will complain.

Our Perth forecast is here.

- Weatherzone

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