Heavy rainfall and hail that swept through parts of Western Australia’s Wheatbelt overnight have wreaked havoc on local businesses and farmers in the region.
The severe thunderstorms flooded businesses in the southern grainbelt and closed roads, disrupting the state’s grain harvest.
Severe thunderstorms rolled across WA’s grain region during harvest. (Supplied: Tom Proudfoot)
The town of Brookton in the Great Southern, 130 kilometres east of Perth, recorded the highest rainfall total with 50.2 millimetres on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
Rainfall totals above 100mm have been reported at South Burracoppin, east of Perth.
Brookton farmer Murray Hall described the hail storm as “unbelievable”.
Brookton locals described the hail that fell on Wednesday as “unbelievable”. (Supplied)
“I was driving a truck out to our farm at the time and I thought the windscreen was going to come in, the hail was that big,” he said.
Mr Hall said he spent this morning and last night assessing the damage, where he found two dead sheep that had been struck by lightning.
“Livestock is our first priority,” he said.
He said he was already in talks with his insurance company about crop damage.
“We’ve looked at some of our canola, there is extensive damage — the seeds are all on the ground,” he said.
“I’ve seen some areas that have 100 per cent damage in the canola crops, barley has also been affected around 50 to 80 per cent in some areas.”
The Bureau of Meteorology recorded more than 250,000 lightning strikes in southern WA in the 24 hours to midnight on Wednesday, mostly through the Goldfields and interior, with 50,000 strikes through the Central Wheatbelt and Great Southern.
Murray Hall said he had come across extensive damage in his crops after the Wednesday afternoon storm. (Supplied: Murray Hall)
Brookton Shire president Rod Wallis said there had been significant damage to roads, with shire crews working through the night to repair the damage.
“It was a running river of hail at one point in the main street,” he said.
Local businesses, including the hairdresser and hardware store, were forced to close due to extensive flood damage.
Widespread wild weather
Hail and wild weather also destroyed crops south of Merredin in the eastern Wheatbelt.
Agronomist David Keamy said he heard some areas recorded up to 80 millimetres of rain, forcing some farmers to write off whole crops.
“This damage is so widespread, in the places it was bad, it was really bad,” Mr Keamy said.
David Keamy said wild weather had destroyed crops in parts of the eastern Wheatbelt. (Supplied: David Keamy)
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Jess Lingard said there had been warnings ahead of the systems but they had now moved to the east.
“All the drama from the thunderstorms has now shifted into South Australia,” she said.
“So we’re left with a lot of cloud around the South West and the Great Southern this morning, bit of a hangover from all of that activity yesterday.”
Bruce Rock in the eastern Wheatbelt also received hail and heavy rain during the week. (Supplied: Leigh Strange)
Unharvested crops also burnt
At Tammin, 180 kilometres east of Perth, shire chief executive Andrew Malone said wind gusts of up to 65 kilometres per hour on Tuesday had caused a tree branch to snap and hit a power line, sparking a fire that became an emergency-level bushfire.
He said sheds and unharvested crops were lost, as well as minor damage to a meat processing business.
Mr Malone said the fire had burnt right up to a service station in town.
“This was the first fire that had a significant impact on the town site, properties and local businesses, but it could have been much worse,” he said.
Strong wind gusts sparked a fire that threatened the town of Tammin on Tuesday afternoon. (Supplied: Shire of Tammin)
“It was relying on the experience of the fire chief, the deputy and fire control officers who were so apt at knowing what they were doing.”
Mr Malone said crews then had to scramble to another fire at nearby Yorkrakine, sparked by lightning.
North-east of Perth, Dalwallinu farmer Steve Carter said lightning had also started several fires there on Tuesday afternoon.
“The firefighters put the worst of them out, but then rain helped put others out,” he said.