Weather News

Dry start to the dry season in Perth

Ben Domensino, Tuesday January 15, 2019 - 14:33 AEDT

Perth has experienced an unusually dry spell of weather during the last two and a half months, its driest such period in 46 years.

The city only collected 3.2mm of rain during November and 1.8mm in December. This arid end to 2018 has been followed up by a paltry 1.8mm of rain during the first 15 days of January, as of 9am on Tuesday.

Perth's 6.8mm of rain between the start of November and the middle of January is the city's lowest accumulated total for this two-and-a-half month period since 1972/73, when just 4.6mm reached the gauge.

Summer is typically Perth's driest time of year, when rain-bearing cold fronts contract to the south and high pressure systems take up residence over Australia's southern latitudes. Recently, the highs over Western Australia's southern districts have been stronger than usual, further restricting the waning seasonal rainfall.

Perth is not expected to see any rain for the remainder of this week and could continue its dry run well into next week.

Despite the lack of recent rain, healthy falls earlier in 2018 boosted the Perth's water supply and the city's overall storage level is currently sitting at 11 per cent higher than this time last year.

- Weatherzone

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