Geraldton and surrounds record rainfall, winds but escaped the worst of the wet weather this week

Geraldton has had a decent winter soaking this week, but the severe weather warning issued for most of the State’s coastal regions was far from the battering predicted.

From Sunday to Thursday morning, Geraldton had recorded 31.4mm — 24mm of which bucketed down overnight on Sunday.

The city’s July rainfall average is 91.3mm, and so far this month Geraldton has measured more than half of that at 59mm.

Geraldton is also well on its way to reaching the 449.9mm yearly rainfall average average, with 295.8mm already this year.

Damaging surf conditions were expected to cause significant beach erosion along most of the west coast, but particularly in the areas south of Shark Bay. However, the windy city’s conditions stayed relatively tame, with gusts briefly reaching a maximum of 72km/h overnight on Monday, and getting up to 54km/h at various points during the day throughout the week.

We have had some good rains, but it hasn’t been devastating at all.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services attended several homes across the Mid West which sustained weather damage this week, including a home in Carnarvon which was flooded, a home in Morawa with roof damage, and another which had water leaking into the property.

Kalbarri recorded 20mm of rain during the worst of the weather on Sunday night.

Kalbarri SES manager Steve Cable said the town — which is still littered with tarp-covered homes without roofs — was spared the worst of the weather.

“It has been reasonably quiet,” he said. “We haven’t had any very strong winds.

“We have had some good rains, but it hasn’t been devastating at all.”

Mr Cable said severe weather warnings continued to worry the cyclone-devastated community, but residents had breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared Kalbarri would not be hit hard by the cold front.

“There was probably a bit of anxiety, but we got off pretty light,” he said.

A shower or two is expected in Geraldton today, but chance of rain will fall for the rest of the week and only light winds are expected.

It was a rainy end to the school holidays down south, with the capital city recording 14mm of rain on overnight on Tuesday, pushing the total for July to 154.8mm for the first 14 days and smashing the average of 142.3mm. The July record is 278.6mm set in 1995.

Perth metropolitan residents are expected to enjoy a short reprieve from the story weather only tomorrow, with showers expected to continue today and pick up again from Sunday.