Rain too late for WA farmers

PERTH has come through what felt like one of its longest winters but a late start meant it rained less than usual.

The city recorded 412.2mm of rain during the three months of winter, 61.3mm below its 473.5mm average.

The Weather Bureau put this down to a dry June, when just 88mm fell over four days — 84.9mm less than average.

“We usually get a lot more rainfall in June and the rain that does come is consistent,” Weather Bureau duty forecaster Gianni Colangelo said.

“June let us all down a bit but we had a lot of rain in July and August.”

July and August were well above average, with 172.6mm and 151.6mm respectively with 24 rain days in July and 18 in August.

Summer rain propped up the State’s annual figure to date, with Perth at 689.2mm compared with its 676.1mm average.

Many farmers are experiencing a frustrating season, with a late season resulting in patchy germination.

Damian Harris, who farms at Binnu, north of Geraldton, has had half his average rain for the growing season.

“For the season so far we’ve had 90mm or less — we normally get 200mm to 250mm,” he said.

“We just couldn’t get our crop out the ground, but there are farmers worse off than me.”

Mr Harris said he would harvest every little bit he could.

Perth’s coldest day this year was August 9 with a 14.2C maximum and the coldest morning this year was 1.7C on August 2.

Mr Colangelo said another cold front was forecast to hit Perth today but conditions should be clear into the weekend and early next week.

Source: Rain too late for WA farmer | Perth Now