Weather News

Only dribs and drabs reaching WA wheat belt

Brett Dutschke, Monday July 21, 2014 - 16:08 AEST

Rain about to scatter across Western Australia this week will only bring dribs and drabs to the wheat belt, making the recovery a frustratingly slow one after a dry start to the season.

June was a drier than average month for all of the South West Land Division, including the wheat belt with less than half the average falling across most of the region.

During July there has been a recovery due to cold fronts becoming stronger and more frequent. Parts of the Southwest, Southern Coastal, including Bridgetown, Collie and Jacup, have already received their monthly average rainfall. And almost all of the Central Wheat Belt is about two thirds the way there with 30-to-50mm so far.

Unfortunately, for the wheat belt, July has not been the month of recovery that some had hoped for.

The atmosphere has just been too dry for cold fronts to take significant rain a long way inland. Bencubbin and Merredin have not received 10 millimetres of rain in a day this month, or for that matter, this season. Typically these places would see 10mm in a day twice in July.

Bencubbin, Merredin and Kellerberrin, which have only received about half of their June-July average rainfall, are unlikely to see 10mm in a day before the end of the month.

Two cold fronts, one passing through tomorrow and another next weekend, only look like delivering about five millimetres each to the wheat belt while bringing 15-to-30mm each to places further west and south.

Given that August is usually the driest month of the winter and this August is looking like a near-average month, this season should turn out to be drier than average for most of the wheat.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2014

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

Australia's tropical cyclone season coming to an end

16:40 AEST The 2023-24 Australian tropical cyclone season is almost over and while it was a quiet season based on overall numbers, some of the landfalling systems had a big impact.