The remains of ex-Tropical Cyclone Isobel has combined with a strong mid-latitude trough to cause record breaking rainfall and strong winds in the southeast of Western Australia. Several sites broke their highest daily rainfall records including Esperance where the 153.2 mm recorded at 9 am this morning eclipsed the 106.6 mm recorded on 7 January 1999. The highest rainfall amount occurred at Esperance Airport where more than 221 mm has fallen in the past two days. The rainfall has caused serious flooding in the region.

"While it is common for the remains of a tropical cyclone to cause heavy rain over inland parts of Western Australia it is quite exceptional to have it coincide with such a strong trough to the south", said Neil Bennett, acting Manager of Weather Services in WA.

The strongest recorded wind gust was 111 kilometres per hour (60 knots) at Esperance at 9pm WDT on Thursday (4th). This broke the previous highest January wind gust in Esperance of 104 kilometres per hour in 1975.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued the first Severe Weather Warning for the area at 3pm WDT on Tuesday 2 January giving Emergency Services and the community plenty of notice before the strong winds and rain commenced.

Some significant rainfall totals:

Site	Daily rainfall (mm)		48-hour rainfall (mm)	Previous daily rainfall record (sites more than 10 years of records)
	4 January	5 January
Esperance Aero	49.0	172.0*	221.0*	101.4 mm 6/1/1999
Cheadanup	42.8	161.4	204.2
Telina Downs	56.6	138.6	195.2	80.0 mm 27/6/1966
Merivale Farm	47.6	137.8	185.4	109.2 mm 6/1/1999
Esperance	31.0	153.2	184.2	106.6 mm 7/1/1999
Munglinup	25.8	153.6	179.4	62.4 mm 8/1/2006
Erinair	31.4	138.6	170.0	90.2 mm 6/1/1999
Ravensthorpe	28.4	112.8	141.2	102.9 mm 20/1/1939
Balladonia (in Eucla)	134.1	3.6	137.7	77.5 mm 8/3/1943

* Preliminary value as power outages caused some data losses at Esperance Airport.

More information

Joe Courtney or Caroline Bojarski

e-mail: sevwx_wa@bom.gov.au

Ph. (08) 9263 2222

Bureau of Meteorology, Perth.