Wild, wet March ahead

Weather forecasts suggest Albany could be in for a March 10 times wetter than February.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicted the region between Albany and Walpole had a 75 per cent chance of recording 25mm from March 1 until April.

That would be more than 10 times the amount of rain that fell in February, when only 2.4mm was recorded. It would make this region among the wettest places in WA this month outside the tropics.

As of Wednesday, 4.8mm of rainfall had been recorded in Albany since March 1.

Periodic rain is expected to lash Albany from Thursday to Sunday, with up to 15mm possible today.

Early forecasts predict Sunday to Tuesday will be partly cloudy and dry.

Similar weather is expected in Denmark, Walpole, Bremer Bay, and Gnowangerup and Katanning — where thunderstorms could hit leading into the weekend.

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Cameron Lewis said rain was being brought down from the north.

“We’ve got a trough offshore at the moment and a rain band is developing within that trough, pulling some moisture from up north with it,” he said.

“That will gradually move over the western part of the State, with rainfall at the moment looking like it’s going to be down in the south-west corner, around the Great Southern and Albany area.”

Albany recorded WA’s coolest average summer maximum temperature in 2018-19, at 21.8C, and last month was the driest February in 115 years for Albany and Mt Barker.