Collie recorded its wettest start to winter in seven years with 302.4mm of rain falling across June and July.
That was the most rain that has fallen across the two month period since 2011, where 305.2mm of rain was recorded.
July was the wetter month – recording 169.2mm to June’s 133.2mm – while Sunday, June10, Monday, June 18 and Tuesday, July 3 were the most significant days with each recording over 20mm of rain.
A Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said a succession of fronts had moved across the South West during the two month period, including nine fronts that had a severe weather warning attached.
“Winter rainfall in South West WA is predominantly caused by cold fronts sweeping in from the south west of the state, and in drier years we tend to see the number of fronts drop off as high pressure systems dominate the weather pattern,” the spokesperson said.
“So far this season we have seen the cold fronts come through on a regular basis resulting in the totals we have seen.”
Despite being the second wettest start to winter in Collie this decade, the 2018 rainfall was below the average of 350.2mm recorded in June and July during the period from 1899 to 2018 across the Collie and Collie East weather stations.