Source : Perth Now news
A small inland WA town has received a quarter of its annual rainfall in just 24 hours – marking its wettest spring day on record.
Storms over WA’s interior broke records at the small outpost of Leonora, while on the east coast Melbourne saw maximum temperatures well below September averages on Monday.
About 650km northeast of Perth, the town of Leonora was drenched overnight from Sunday into Monday, recording 58.8mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am.
Sitting 600km east of the coast, Leonora recorded its wettest spring day on record, more than a quarter of its average annual rainfall, and the wettest day in nine years.
The downpour naturally was also the wettest September day ever for the town – where usually only 10mm of rain falls for the entire month.
Highways were shut for a time, and the few images online of surface flooding do not appear to show any damage.
Weatherzone meteorologist, Joel Pippard, said El Nino had created the higher-than-normal pressure system and was a key contributor to the slow-moving, persistent rainfall.
“The very slow-moving weather pattern over WA, with the relatively stationary trough ‘cradled’ between two areas of high pressure, is associated with El Nino, because higher pressure over Australia is one of the main atmospheric measures of El Nino,” he said.
There is more rainfall forecast for inland WA this week, as the system moves east over even-less populated areas including the Great Victoria Desert.
On the other side of the country, the first major cold front for three weeks crossed the southeast on Monday morning, snapping a streak of unseasonably warm conditions.
Melbourne’s maximum on Monday was 14.6C – the city’s coldest day in three weeks, and 2.7C below the September average.
A maximum of 21.3C for Sydney on Monday was a degree above the long-term September average, but a sharp shift from the 33C and 32C recorded in the west and the city respectively over the weekend.
Elsewhere, boaties, swimmers and anyone wanting to cast lure is being warned to stay out of the ocean across Coffs Harbour, the Macquarie coast, Hunter coast, Sydney coast, the Illawarra and Batemans areas.
A dangerous surf and swell warning has been issued on Tuesday afternoon, extending until Thursday night.
