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.