Localised flooding is under way in Western Australia's Moore and Hill river catchments, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Saturday, as the second burst of the week's rain shifted north and gave Geraldton its wettest day of the month.
The Bureau's fourth flood watch for the catchments, issued at 10.17am local time, says elevated river levels and localised flooding are occurring, and that further rises and overland inundation are possible with Saturday's showers, "including Moora, from late Saturday". Some communities and homesteads may become isolated, the watch says, and road conditions should be checked before travelling. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services has a flood advice current for the Shire of Moora at stay-informed level: no immediate danger, but the situation is listed as escalating.
The rain that fed those rivers moved north overnight. Geraldton Airport recorded 48.8 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am Saturday, its biggest July day this year by a wide margin after just 3.6 millimetres fell across the first 16 days of the month. Over the two days to Saturday morning, Bickley in the Perth hills took 48.2 millimetres, Bunbury 47.0, Dwellingup 46.4 and Rottnest Island 43.0, while the Perth Metro gauge finished with 26.8.
The wind stayed on the capes. Cape Leeuwin gusted to 95 kilometres per hour before dawn on Saturday and Cape Naturaliste to 87, while Perth's metro station never passed 37. By 2.12pm the Bureau had cancelled its marine wind warnings for Perth waters and the Bunbury Geographe coast, and the gale warnings it had flagged for Saturday did not eventuate; a strong wind warning holds for the Leeuwin, Albany and Esperance coasts into the evening.
The east coast's hazard this weekend is a different system entirely. A low well offshore of southern Queensland is driving large southeasterly swell, and the Bureau issued a damaging surf warning at 4.34pm for the Southeast Coast district, from the New South Wales border to Cape Moreton, until at least Sunday night. Gold Coast, Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island beaches are named, with coastal erosion possible on south-facing stretches, and hazardous surf warnings run along the NSW coast.
Behind the front, the southeast turns cold rather than wet. Frost warnings are current for South Australia's Mid North and Riverland, where the Bureau forecasts temperatures down to minus 1 on Sunday morning, and for most of regional Victoria. The country's only river flood warning outside WA is still the Kiewa, where minor flooding at Bandiana is expected to persist into next week with no significant rain forecast.
For the flood watch area the worst of the rain has passed: Moora's forecast holds 2 to 5 millimetres of showers for the rest of Saturday and only a slight chance on Sunday morning. Perth can expect 9 to 18 degrees with a shower or two on Sunday. The Bureau's next flood watch for the Moore and Hill catchments is due by midday Sunday, western time.
