Western Australia’s stormy cold front to cross the country

One Australian city has just experienced its wettest day of the year thanks to a wild and wet cold front that is still lingering in the state.

Western Australia has just experienced its wettest day of the year thanks to a wild and wet cold front that has marched into South Australia and is expected to rumble all the way to NSW over the next 48 hours.

The past few days have brought the most widespread rainfall of the year so far to Australia, with rain in every state and territory and snow in alpine areas.

Perth was hit hard by lightning and hail and 40mm of rain fell on Sunday in the city’s wettest night since about the same time last year.

There was also risk of flash flooding in the western capital.

Wilyabrup in the Margaret River region recorded 72mm of rain in just six hours overnight, while peak winds of 98km/h were experienced in Cape Naturaliste.

The past few days have brought the most widespread rainfall of the year so far to Australia. Picture: Sky News

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Angus Hines said the stormy cold front would cross the south of the country by Tuesday and then move towards the east by Wednesday, but residual conditions still remained in WA as of Monday morning.

“There is still a chance of some severe weather across parts of the state right down on the south coast of WA, seeing the worst of that weather on Monday. Some really strong winds, potentially damaging winds, up to about 100km an hour between Albany and Esperance on the south coast,” he said.

“Also, some really large waves down that southern coastline, potentially as large as 8m, which is high even by the standard of that very rugged coast. I don’t think there’s too many people out braving the ocean today, but they should be extra cautious with those hazardous conditions on the water.”

Mr Hines said the system would become mild as it reached the east coast, with “welcome” but “single-digit” falls spreading across parts of southern Queensland, most of NSW and northern Victoria.

Australia’s southeast has already faced weekend wet weather. Picture: Sky News

“We also have some cold temperatures setting in across Australia, which is going to mean quite cold weather through most of the week for the vast majority of the nation away from the tropical north,” he said.

“We’re also likely to see continual top-ups of snowfall across the Australian mountains, which had a good dump overnight.”

The country’s east has already faced a weekend cold front as almost every capital city experienced downpours.

Dry parts of South Australia, Victoria and NSW welcomed wet weather; however, it was not enough to catch up with rainfall deficiencies this year.

The upcoming band is not set to be as heavy as the weekend weather, but some areas will receive a “top up” of up to 15mm.

Monday will be dry in the north of Australia under a high pressure system.

WA will still experience some showers, storms and strong winds.

Originally published as Western Australia’s stormy cold front to cross the country