WA's Kimberley copping a soaking
Craig McIntosh,
Saturday May 7, 2016 - 14:02 AEST
A series of deep low pressure troughs are triggering areas of unseasonably heavy rain and thunderstorms in the Kimberley, bringing some much needed falls.
After the driest wet season in 11 years, the Kimberley is currently being saturated, with heavy rainfall a blessing and a hindrance. In the 24 hours to 9am this morning, West Roebuck recorded 67mm of rain. That's over six times more than the average for the entire month of May in just one day.
Bidyadanga, Fitzroy Crossing, Wyndham and Kununurra all received over twice their respective monthly averages from 9am Friday to 9am Saturday.
The heaviest rainfall so far has been in the southwest Kimberley. Mandora recorded 134mm of rain to 9am today. With a monthly average of just over 23mm, this one day rain amount was 580% of what the gauges usually catch in May. This is also the heaviest 24 hours for Mandora since January 2012. Putting that in perspective, Mandora recorded more rain to 9am than any single day during the last four wet seasons.
The problem with so much rain in such a short period of time on relatively dry soil means flooding becomes a real risk. Currently a Flood Watch is active for the Kimberley and Northern Interior district.
Isolated showers and thunderstorms are likely to continue throughout northern WA in the coming days. The thundery activity begin to will ease around the middle of the week as a building high pressure ridge settles the instability and brings a return to the dry season norm.
- Weatherzone
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2016