Weather News

Electric skies over WA's Goldfields and Southern Interior

Craig McIntosh, Monday April 17, 2017 - 11:11 AEST

A low and trough is delivering plenty of lightning to southern central WA to finish off the Easter long weekend.

Firmly embedded within a trough over the Goldfields and Southern Interior, a low pressure system is generating long-lasting thunderstorms with areas of heavy showers. Thunderstorms within the trough have been detected over the Pilbara, Northern Interior, Gascoyne and northeastern parts of the Central Wheat Belt. The storms have tracked east with the low and are now centred over the Goldfields and Southern Interior.

There has been lightning aplenty due to the surface low interacting with an upper cold air pool situated right above the Goldfields. In a 300km radius from Laverton there has been over 185,000 lightning strikes in the last 48 hours. Laverton has also recorded the most rain from the system, with over 16mm falling between 3am and 9am this morning. Towns to the east should expect some heavy falls alongside lightning as Monday rolls on.

The trough and low will keep tracking east over the coming days, and skies over southern WA will clear as a high pressure ridge takes its place. Another low looks to form within a trough from Friday which will again light up the skies over southern WA.

- Weatherzone

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