Highest one-day fall and biggest monthly total in 20-plus years
COLLIE has experienced its wettest June in 21 years and last Thursday the town was sodden in its highest rainfall for last month — 30.8mm.
Collie recorded 265mm of rain last month. Its June average is 178.4mm.
A much lower recording of 0.6mm fell on Friday, while 29.8mm came down on Saturday and 25.8mm on Sunday.
The lowest minimum temperature for June was minus 2.3 degrees Celsius on Monday, June 22, while the lowest maximum was 11.7 degrees on Tuesday, June 23.
The highest minimum temperature was 11.2 degrees Celsius recorded on Thursday, June 18, and Friday, June 19.
The highest maximum for June was and was 22.7 degrees Celsius recorded on Monday, June 1.
Branches and other debris littered many roads around town and its surrounding areas over the weekend and early this week. Many homes were pelted with heavy rain and hail as thunder rumbled.
Monica Nicholson of the Collie SES said there had been a number of call-outs due to the weather.
“We were called to one home on Palmer Road on Monday morning because a tree had fallen on a roof,” Mrs Nicholson said.
“On Friday last week we were called to assist in Bunbury but were then called back to a home on Medic Street that was flooded.”
SES was also called to Atkinson Street on Saturday night because a tree had fallen across the road, she said. A similar incident occurred on Williams Road early Sunday. “We had to hand over most the emergencies to the shire, especially the tree on Williams Road which was too big to move,” Mrs Nicholson said.
Regional Business Manager of the Water Corporation Scott Moorhead the large amount of weekend rain was expected to lift the Wellington and Harris River dams closer to capacity.
“As of last Thursday, Wellington Dam was 52 per cent full, 20 per cent less than the same time last year,” Mr Moorhead said.
“Harris Dam is 51 per cent full, 10 per cent lower than last year, and Glen Mervyn is 57 per cent full, two per cent less than the same time last year.”
Statistics are gathered by the Water Corporation every Thursday and it is expected that those released today will show significant increase.
The Department of Water’s director of water resource management John Ruprecht said the recent heavy rainfall had resulted in a significant increase in stream flow in the Upper Collie River.
“Whereas the Collie River east branch has been flowing since the end of May, the Collie River south branch began to flow only last weekend,” he said.
“On Monday more than two gigalitres flowed from the Collie River into the Wellington Reservoir.
“Following the rains, the inflow salinity rose initially — up to 2500mg/L — and then started to decline. However, the amount of salt load into the dam is still significant. It is likely that the salinity criteria for scouring the dam of salt will be met next week some time,” he said.
The next week is not expected to be as wild in Collie as the one just past.
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