Australian Weather

03 Jul 2025, 1:19AM UTC

The southwestern tip of Western Australia is the latest corner of the country to see exceptionally heavy winter rainfall, with 24-hour totals topping 100mm at some locations. Storms and heavy downpours pelted much of the South West Land Division on Wednesday as a cold front and associated low pressure system moved in from the Indian Ocean, with the most intense rainfall occurring in the late afternoon and early evening. Skies were ablaze as the storms crossed the coastline, with more than 250,000 lightning strikes detected within 500km of Perth. Image: Four-hour radar loop showing heavy falls and storms in southwest WA on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. Rainfall totals were heaviest near the coast, and especially in the Margaret River region. Notable accumulations to 9am (AWST) included: 130mm at the Vasse Highway CB3 weather station just south of Busselton, with falls exceeding 100mm at two other nearby stations. 89.2mm at Busselton Airport, the heaviest rain day in any month in almost two years, and the heaviest July fall since the current site opened in 1998. 63mm at Bridgetown, the heaviest rain day in any month for four years in the inland town located approximately 100km southeast of Busselton. 40.6mm at Mandurah, the heaviest rain day to date in 2025 and the heaviest July rain day since 2019 for WA’s second most populous city. 18.8mm at Perth Airport. The West Australian rain has cleared the far southwest of the state this Thursday morning, with the exception of a few very light showers, however bands of showers continue to dampen parts of the Wheatbelt, north and east of Perth. Mostly clear skies will set in for a couple of days from this afternoon, before a classic winter pattern returns to the southwest later on Sunday as a strong cold front approaches.

02 Jul 2025, 5:59AM UTC

Satellites have captured spectacular images of a powerful East Coast Low that has been causing severe weather in NSW this week. East Coast Lows are one of the most dangerous types of weather systems in Australia. Their impacts can be similar to a tropical cyclone and they often affect highly populated areas of Australia's eastern seaboard. This week’s system formed when an upper-level trough passing over NSW caused a surface-based low pressure system to deepen rapidly near the NSW coast. The video below shows enhanced water vapour satellite imagery between Sunday afternoon and Wednesday morning. This satellite layer is useful for identifying moisture in the upper atmosphere. In this video, you can see moisture-laden air from the tropics being wrapped into the developing low near eastern NSW. Video: Enhanced water vapour satellite images showing an East Coast Low forming near the NSW coast this week. The intense low pressure system sat very close to the NSW coast throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday, causing a sustained period of heavy rain, flooding, damaging to destructive winds and damaging surf over a broad area of eastern NSW. The severe weather from this system caused power outages and evacuations as wind gusts reached 130 km/h along the coast and rain rates exceeded 120 mm in 6 hours and 220 mm in 24 hours. Image: Visible satellite image showing the low sitting off the Central Coast on Wednesday morning. Fortunately, the low pressure system that caused the severe weather on Tuesday and Wednesday will move towards the east into Wednesday night, taking it away from the coast. However, a second low pressure system associated with the same broad low pressure complex will deliver another burst of wind and rain to eastern NSW on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. The weather will improve by Friday as the lows move further away from the coast and a high pressure ridge builds over eastern NSW. Be sure to monitor the latest severe weather warnings in your area and contact the SES on 132 500 if you need emergency assistance from this weather event.