Storm city and there's more on the way

Lightning sparked fires and forced beach closures yesterday as a thunderstorm pelted Perth with heavy rain and damaging winds that cut power, uprooted trees, battered boats and caused flash flooding.

A spectacular lightning storm passed through the city overnight and was followed with heavy rain and winds in some suburbs.

The State Emergency Service received several calls for help from people with leaking roofs.

WEATHER RADAR

The Weather Bureau says Perth can expect more thunderstorm activity this morning and later today.

A severe thunderstorm warning for damaging winds, large hail and heavy rainfall has been issued for the Gascoyne and Central West forecast districts.

The weather bureau has issued the warning people in an area bounded by Gascoyne Junction to Errabiddy to Meekatharra to Wongan Hills to Lancelin to Dongara.

This includes people in, near or between Jurien Bay and Dalwallinu, but does not include Meekatharra.

The warning for people in the area west of a line from Gascoyne Junction to Dongara has been cancelled. This includes people in, near or between Geraldton, Kalbarri and Northampton.

A view of The Swan River from Mosman park as another storm arrives. Picture: Michael Wilson/The West Australian

Weather bureau duty forecaster Noel Pewzey said a surface trough on the west coast continued to bring wild weather.

“There are still some thunderstorms on the radar at the moment, which will extend south through the day,” he said.

“It won’t be as extensive as they’ve been overnight, but there is the possibility thunderstorms and gusty winds over Perth city in the next hour or two.”

He said thunderstorm activity would subside late in the morning and return into early evening.

“We’ve got this surface trough near the west coast that has been sitting there for a few fays and it is very unstable due a low sitting over it,” he said.

Picture: Graham Green

“The worst will be over for us early Wednesday morning and will be a clearing trend during Wednesday and back to clear conditions after us.”
He said high moisture levels were causing humid conditions around the State.

The forecast for today is 36 degrees with thunderstorms and tomorrow is cooling off to 34 degrees with a possible shower or storm.

Mild conditions are expected for the remainder of the week, with 29 degrees on Thursday, 32 on Friday and 34 degrees on Saturday.

Earlier yesterday, emergency services stretched from other fires caused by lightning were kept busy as the electrical storm hit Perth’s northern suburbs about 1pm and moved its way towards the CBD at 2pm with short and heavy bursts of rain and big drops in temperature within 10 minutes.

The strongest wind and highest rainfall were recorded in the eastern suburbs. Flights at Perth Airport were kept for up to 45 minutes in a holding pattern and workers cleared from the tarmac.

The view from Canning Beach Road. Picture: Jon Peters

Wind gusts reached 78km/h at 2.30pm in Jandakot. Bickley had the heaviest rainfall of 12.6mm – with more than 10mm falling in seven minutes.

The bureau said the pattern producing the storms was typical for this time of year, although the longevity was not usual.

...from Kalamunda. Picture: Basilia Staltari

Twenty firefighters were called to a house in Leda at 3.15pm after receiving a triple-0 call that lightning had started a fire in the roof cavity.

Crews arrived to find flames coming from front windows and an air-conditioning vent, a Department of Fire and Emergency Services spokesman said.

Lightning caused delays during peak services on the Mandurah and Joondalup train line.

Western Power crews have worked around the clock to restore power after outages caused by Perth’s recent spate of lightning strikes.

Over a period of one hour yesterday, 16,000 customers in the metropolitan area lost power.

The worst affected suburbs were Swan View, Stratton, Seville Grove and Jane Brook.

Lightning also damaged power lines and electrical equipment on power poles.

Watermans Beach. Picture: Leigh Cleary

Western Power has restored power to more than 170,000 customers who have experienced outages from rolling lightning storms across the southern part of the State since last Thursday.

Western Power Field Operations chief Brad Lacey said thunderstorms - particularly lightning strikes - had caused numerous faults and damaged parts of the grid.

“Lightning is always a hazard for electricity networks and Perth and regions to the north have recently had a few days of lightning strikes,” Mr Lacey said.

“Approximately 12,000 customers were impacted from about 7pm (Sunday) in the metropolitan area and regions north of Perth. The storms affected customers from Meadow Springs in Perth’s south to Carnamah in our Mid-West.”

People who see a fallen power line or a network hazard should call Western Power’s 24-hour emergency line on 13 13 51.

To protect homes during electrical storms, people should unplug sensitive appliances such as computers and TVs to reduce the risk of damage from power surges that can occur when power is restored.

In the event of a power outage, keep fridge and freezer doors closed. Food will keep for at least 12 hours if seals are in good condition and doors not opened.