Weather News

Spring starting damp in WA

Brett Dutschke, Tuesday September 2, 2014 - 18:11 AEST

The Southwest Land Division is starting spring as winter ended, wet, helping grain crops recover after a drier-than-normal winter

The Southwest Land Division dried out during August then picked up reasonable rain at the end of the month and is about to get spring off to a wet start, giving grain farmers some hope.

Most of the region had a drier-than-average winter and could do with some rain to help grain crops continue their recovery. It was a short winter with most places seeing above average rainfall during July. Only a few small areas in the Division, including Bridgetown, Jacup, Katanning and Lake Grace, ended up with a wetter than average season.

Between now and this time next week low pressure troughs will form over the region and draw moisture from the Indian Ocean to scatter rain over a large area.

One system will slowly move through between now and Thursday and another stronger system will do a more effective job over the weekend and early next week.

All up, rain will reach north of Carnarvon and as far east as Eucla and fill almost all the gaps in between, including the wheat belt, where it is still badly needed. Some of the wheat belt only gained less than one millimetre late last week while the Donnybrook area flooded.

All up during the next week the heaviest falls will be near the west coast, widespread 10-to-30mm. There is potential for the odd 50mm-plus-total south of Perth, most likely in the Bunbury-Donnybrook area.

Rain will become lighter as it travels east with eastern parts of the wheat belt likely to gain less than 10mm.

One of the areas most desperate for rain is Bencubbin and Merredin which only picked up just over half their winter average of 130mm. These areas typically gain 20-to-25mm during September and should pick up 10-to-20mm in the coming week.

Looking further ahead, computer models indicate potential for some follow-up rain during the following week, taking much of the region close to its September average.

The next few weeks are critical given we are entering a dry time of year and this spring looks like it will end up drier than normal.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2014

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