Perth weather: SES volunteers called out to 10 homes as rain and thunderstorms hit

Those who woke to embrace the perfect conditions for a cosy public holiday on the couch are in luck — rain is expected to fall for the rest of the day with a severe thunderstorm possible tomorrow.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the Perth metropolitan area recorded 10.6mm in the gauge to 9am this morning, with the heaviest falls to the north east of the city from Bindoon to Northam.

The two heaviest rainfalls were recorded at Minston Park, near Bindoon, which received 65.6mm, while Julimar Forest had 57mm.

Duty forecaster Pete Clegg said a further 10mm to 20mm of rain was expected across Perth for the rest of the afternoon and into tonight.

“For the rest of the week, we remain in fairly unsettled conditions ... tomorrow we are less likely to see the persistent rainfall but could see some very significant thunderstorm development tomorrow afternoon through to the evening,” he said.

“(The rain) will be a bit more isolated in terms of the heavy falls, but up to 30mm is certainly possible with those thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon. Then Wednesday and Thursday, it’s almost a little bit of a repeat of what we’ve had today and what we will have tomorrow.”

Mr Clegg said between 15mm and 20mm of rain is expected to hit Perth on Wednesday and a further 15mm on Thursday.

“It’s all being driven by moisture feeding into the State in the form of the tropic cyclone over the Indian Ocean,” he said.

Mr Clegg said there was a “high risk” of a severe thunderstorm warning tomorrow but the Bureau would continue to monitor conditions.

State Emergency Services volunteers have received 10 call-outs since 6.30am, mainly for water ingress or roof damage. They include call-outs to Watermans Bay, Coondle, Ballajura, Gosnells, Caversham, Parmelia, Connolly, Baldivis and Northam.

Western power said despite the weather, it had not experienced any “significant increase in fault levels” on the electricity network and only a “small number of weather related faults”, with power already restored to most customers.

A spokeswoman said a substation trip left 1800 customers without power just after 10am in the Dwellingup Waroona area and in parts of Pinjarra, with lightning in the area at the time.

Around 850 of those customers were restored within 15 minutes after power was remotely back fed.

The remaining customers will be able to be reconnected once the substation is inspected.

Lightning was also reported around the Lancelin area leaving 2000 customers without power for around half an hour this morning at around 5am.

In Midland, 90 customers were without power for five hours, with power now restored to those customers.

Western Power has crews on standby to respond to any outages and restore power to customers as quickly as possible with thunderstorms predicted over coming days.

PERTH FORECAST

TUESDAY

Min: 19

Max: 31

Shower or two. Possible storm

WEDNESDAY

Min: 21

Max: 27

Shower or two. Possible storm

THURSDAY

Min: 20

Max: 28

Possible shower or two

FRIDAY

Min: 18

Max: 28

Partly cloudy