Severe weather warning in Perth: trees across streets, power outages as wild winds cause chaos

Trees have been ripped from the ground and thousands of homes have been left without electricity when wild weather sweeps over Perth this morning.

The worst is yet to come, however, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, which has expanded its severe weather warning to include a forecast of harmful winds of up to 125 km / h.

A tree fell over the Mitchell Freeway, triggering a warning from Main Roads WA to motorists to exercise extreme caution.

Emergency services are on hand to clear the tree affecting the left lane north on Vincent Street.

There have been several reports of trees on other streets, including in North Fremantle above Queen Victoria Street, on Hay Street in Floreat, and on Karrinyup Road near the redesigned Karrinyup Shopping Center.

A number of accidents also add to the rush hour headaches.

Thousands of properties across Perth have been left without power.

These include 1325 in Parkwood, Ferndale, Riverton, 1082 in Mount Claremont, Floreat, 199 in Innaloo, 128 in Scarborough, 118 in Wanneroo and 116 in Balcatta, Carine.

Melville handled the brunt of the damaging winds at 6:23 a.m. and recorded gusts of up to 95 km / h, followed by Swanbourne at 83 km / h and Gooseberry Hill at 74 km / h.

Rottnest also recorded 95 km / h.

Swanbourne had 9.8 mm of rain as of 7 a.m., Mandurah 9.4 mm and Bickley 9 mm. The bureau has forecast up to 35mm of rain for the day.

Office spokeswoman Catherine Schelfout said a rain band crossed Perth this morning bringing in the heaviest rain of the day before crossing a low pressure system with noxious winds.

“That’ll be moving south of the state tonight, just before midnight, so we expect the strongest winds to come through,” she told The West Live.

“We are updating the warning for tonight, because the computer modeling this morning looks a little worse than in our previous edition, but a bit of gusts of up to 100 km / h inland are certainly still possible.”

It is expected that it will continue to rain for the next few days, although good weather is looming on the horizon and the bureau is forecasting a glorious 29 ° C and sunshine for Sunday.

PERTH FORECAST

Tuesday: 21C – rain, possible storm, 15-30mm

Wednesday: 13-20C, showers, wind easing, 4-8mm

Thursday: 13-21C, shower or two, 0-1mm

Friday: 11-23C, partly cloudy

Saturday: 11-27C, mostly sunny

Sunday: 14-29C, mostly sunny