Flash flooding hits Albany and Great Southern

The Great Southern has been hit with flash flooding this morning and last night, with the State Emergency Services responding to 113 calls for help, mostly in the Albany area.

Power lines are down and trees have fallen across roads after 54mm of rain since midday yesterday.

Walpole has had 56mm of rain and there are reports that the Denmark River has broken its banks.

SES volunteers from Albany, Denmark, Mt Barker and Gnowangerup, with support from bush fire brigades, volunteer and career Fire & Rescue Service personnel, are attending call-outs.

At one stage more than 15,500 homes were without power and 3300 remained without power at 10pm Monday night.

Albany mayor Dennis Wellington was due to fly back home from Perth last night but said it was too risky to land and the pilot had to turn back.

“He tried to land but the plane bounced all over the sky and he aborted it ... said, ‘No, it’s far too dangerous’ — we couldn’t even see the ground,” Mr Wellington told 6PR.

Mr Wellington said he was forced to drive back to the Great Southern overnight, with a lot of flooding and tree debris on the Albany Highway.

It comes after a huge downpour delivered a month’s worth of rain to some parts of WA in a single day through yesterday and Saturday.

A massive front swept through Perth and the South West, which combined with shivering temperatures to bring winter in with a clout.

And in some areas, the falls were so heavy, it was the wettest 24 hours of the year.

In Perth, 24.8mm of rain was dumped on the city — the second biggest fall since September last year.

The Perth coast was also battered with Swanbourne notching up 30.4mm, while the Swan Valley did not escape the wet weather with 18.4mm.

But Rottnest Island and Mandurah recorded by far the most rain in the gauges as the front passed through.

A Rotto holiday was a washout this weekend, with 61mm of rain falling.

Mandurah recorded 52.6mm of rain, which not only ranks as the heaviest fall of 2021 but also surpassed the monthly average of 48mm for June.

The South West was also drenched, with Cape Naturaliste copping 19.6mm and another 3mm by lunchtime yesterday.

While in the Great Southern, Walpole has been hit with 26.8mm of rain yesterday.

It is forecast to reach just 14C in Perth today, with 8-15mm of rain predicted.

PERTH FORECAST (SOURCE: BOM)

Tuesday: 15C, partly cloudy, up to 0.4mm of rain

Wednesday: 17C, partly cloudy

Thursday: 17C, partly cloudy

Friday: 18C, partly cloudy

Saturday: 19C, a shower or two developing