Western Australia severe weather & warning links.

Official information first

This page is a directory, not a live warning feed. Open BOM to check the current warning area and issue time, and Emergency WA for local information. Atmosphr does not issue or reproduce official emergency warnings here.

BOM tropical cyclone outlook and tracks →

Western Australian weather hazards and when they occur

Western Australia has two quite different storm seasons: tropical cyclones and storms in the north from November to April, and winter storms in the south west from May to October.

DFES says the state averages five cyclones each season, and one or two may cross the coast as a severe tropical cyclone. It also notes a 408 km/h gust recorded near Barrow Island during Severe Tropical Cyclone Olivia in 1996.

Western Australian events worth knowing

• Tropical Cyclone Seroja, April 2021. Seroja crossed the coast south of Kalbarri on 11 April 2021, a rare event for the central west coast. Gusts of 170 km/h were recorded near Kalbarri and about 30,000 homes and businesses lost power. Many damaged properties were not built to withstand a Category 3 cyclone.
• Severe Tropical Cyclone Ilsa, April 2023. Ilsa made landfall as a Category 5 system on the Pilbara coast near Pardoo Roadhouse around midnight on 14 April 2023. A 10-minute mean wind of 218 km/h and a gust of 289 km/h were the highest recorded by the Bureau’s observation network.
• Perth storm, March 2010. DFES records widespread damage to houses, cars and roads, with almost 2,000 calls for SES help.

Official Western Australian channels

• Emergency WA: the state site for warnings and incidents, including cyclone and bushfire warnings.
• SES: call 132 500 for emergency assistance with storm or cyclone damage, and 000 if life is at risk.
• Warning levels: emergency services use the Australian Warning System. the Queensland Government’s explanation of the national system sets out the three levels: Advice (yellow), meaning an incident has started with no immediate danger; Watch and Act (orange), a heightened threat where you should start taking action; and Emergency Warning (red), the highest level, where you may be in danger and need to act immediately.
• Fire danger: since 1 September 2022 Australia has used the Australian Fire Danger Rating System. Its four levels are Moderate (plan and prepare), High (prepare to act), Extreme (take action now to protect your life and property) and Catastrophic (for your survival, leave bush fire risk areas).
• Remote travel: DFES advises knowing several information sources, because telecommunications may not be reliable in remote areas during emergencies.

Using Atmosphr in Western Australia

Western Australia uses UTC+8 all year and does not observe daylight saving. It is two hours behind Sydney in winter and three hours behind in summer. Atmosphr requests each forecast in the selected place’s local time zone, so read the forecast times directly.

Perth, the south west and the Kimberley can be in different seasons at once. Check Broome or the WA forecast hub for the north, and each stop on a long drive. Atmosphr shows Open-Meteo model forecasts and RainViewer radar frames from the recent past. It does not issue warnings, and a quiet map is not an all-clear. Radar coverage across remote WA has gaps, so empty tiles are not evidence of dry weather.

Perth is one point in a very large state

Use Perth and Bunbury for separate metropolitan and south-west checks, and Albany for the south coast. Confirm the destination and local time on each forecast before planning a departure.

For Broome or Karratha, pair the local forecast with the Bureau’s tropical cyclone page when relevant. A cyclone track is an official forecast product; the Atmosphr wind animation is a different kind of model view.

For Geraldton or Kalgoorlie trips, look up additional stops using the location search. Empty radar tiles can reflect limited source coverage or missing frames, so they should not be read as a statewide statement of dry weather.

Local forecasts and rain radar

Today’s forecast for Western Australia towns. Each forecast link opens that town’s 7-day forecast page. The radar link opens recent RainViewer composite imagery, including an old BOM-style layout. It is not a station-specific BOM product.

Search another town or suburb · Understand radar coverage and colour

Plan an activity

Sources and further reading

• BOM warnings and alerts
• Emergency WA
• BOM tropical cyclone outlook and tracks
• DFES: cyclones
• DFES: storms
• DFES: during a storm
• BOM tropical cyclone forecasts and track maps
• Australian Fire Danger Rating System
• AIDR Knowledge Hub: Tropical Cyclone Seroja 2021
• AIDR Knowledge Hub: Tropical Cyclone Ilsa 2023
• Tourism Australia: Australian time zones