{"id":706706,"date":"2026-05-31T17:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706706\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T17:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:53:12","slug":"wa-and-perth-weather-damaging-winds-batter-coast-as-wild-conditions-put-dampener-on-wa-day-long-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706706\/","title":{"rendered":"WA and Perth weather: Damaging winds batter coast as wild conditions put dampener on WA Day long weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perth\u2019s WA Day long weekend stayed wet and wild on Sunday after the city copped a drenching of rain and was battered by damaging winds.<\/p>\n

More than 20mm of rain fell on Sunday up to 5pm as intense showers pelted the west coast from the Midwest to Great Southern regions.<\/p>\n

Wind gusts of 113kph on Rottnest Island in the mid afternoon, while Cape Leeuwin recorded a gust of 122kph.<\/p>\n

Winds were expected to worsen as the evening went on, before easing off after midnight.<\/p>\n

The destruction started on Saturday night as more than 120 calls were made to the State Emergency Service from between 5pm on Saturday to 9am on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The damage continued as the day went on with winds getting worse as the afternoon rolled on.<\/p>\n

\"RunnerCamera IconRunner Tim Mitchell makes his way out of the flooding on Riverside Drive as the Swan River breaks its banks due to the stormy weather. Credit: Sandra Jackson\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

A further 160 calls to the SES were made before 4pm on Sunday, mostly from the metropolitan area but extending to the South West, Great Southern and Midwest-Gascoyne regions.<\/p>\n

While it appeared areas in Perth\u2019s south were the first to be hit especially hard, coastal areas including Mandurah and Bunbury were worst hit.<\/p>\n

A number of trees and power lines fell across the State, leaving nearly 30,000 households without power across the Perth and the wider South West of WA.<\/p>\n

Homes without power face a lengthy wait to reconnected with Western Power predicting homes would need to wait until Monday evening for their lights to return.<\/p>\n

\"PerthCamera IconPerth storm. A shed ended up in a pool in Mandurah. Credit: Matt Atley\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Joey Rawson said the strength of the storm was not seen every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unusual aspect of this system is that the low pressure system that is producing these exceptionally windy conditions is more intense than usual,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s conditions that we don\u2019t see that often, we won\u2019t see an event like this for a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The storm also caught out some whose backyard fixtures weren\u2019t properly secured.<\/p>\n

Mandurah resident Matt Atley woke to find a neighbour\u2019s shed bent and lying in his pool after the wild weather last night.<\/p>\n

He took to social media to document the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone in Mandurah is missing a shed from last night\u2019s storm?\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unusually high tides were seen across the city on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The water level of Swan River was especially high, most noticeably around Barrack Street which had a height of 1.9 metres, more than half a metre higher than usual.<\/p>\n

The walkway to the iconic Blue Boat Shed on Swan River was entirely submerged.<\/p>\n

Mr Rawson said the water levels were expected to reduce by Monday.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe Rowing Shed on Riverside Drive is flooded due to the stormy weather. Sandra Jackson Credit: Sandra Jackson\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certainly been some storm surge along the West Coast, and that coincided with the high tide that occurred this morning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat also brought the water in on the Mitchell Freeway, as well as the Riverside Drive, however, those storm surge conditions along the west coast are going to ease for tomorrow\u2019s high tide so the worst is done in regards to water inundation for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, along the south coast there\u2019s the potential for water inundation in places like Albany as the system tracks further to the east south of WA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaches also copped the brunt of the storm with some in Rockingham showing a considerable amount of erosion.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe entrance to the car park on Victoria Ave in Perth CBD. Sandra Jackson Credit: Sandra Jackson\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

It was a similar story all along the coast, with towns from Lancelin to Busselton seeing high tides.<\/p>\n

The wet weather also caused disruptions to public transport, with a storm-related technical issue leading to the cancellation of trains on the Fremantle line and delays on the Midland line.<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti took to social media to warn commuters of the disruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Public Transport Authority are working as quickly as possible to resolve the issues and will continue to monitor the situation across the network as the storms continue to cross the state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to all of our frontline workers who are out in the storm helping clean up and managing the impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weather was tipped to ease for the final day of the long weekend, but not enough to avoid cancelling several WA Day festivals planned for the public holiday.<\/p>\n

\"ACamera IconA carport has damaged cars in Girrawheen. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong winds are making it impossible to safely bump in the event, and conditions are not expected to improve sufficiently for a public event of this scale to proceed safely,\u201d a statement on behalf of organisers Celebrate WA read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety of patrons, performers, artists, vendors, staff, volunteers and event partners is always the overriding priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weather system wreaking havoc on the west coast is expected to continue its path east towards the eastern States, giving some relief to Perth.<\/p>\n

But Mr Rawson warned WA\u2019s south east region would still be feeling the storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got this intense tropical low that\u2019s just southwest of WA, and that is going to move eastwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that intense tropical low, it\u2019s bringing these damaging and destructive wind gusts, especially to the west coast towns south of Lancelin and the south coast towns as that system continues to move towards the east,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe west coast conditions will ease through Monday morning, but southern districts will continue to get some damaging and possibly destructive wind gusts as we progress through Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth\u2019s WA Day long weekend stayed wet and wild on Sunday after the city copped a drenching of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,45,1192],"class_list":["post-706706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-wa-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}