Storms knock out power for 15,000 in WA as hail turns outback white

About 15,000 homes and businesses across Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Merredin, Kondinin and surrounding communities were still without power after a fault in the 600-kilometre feeder line supplying the region. The wild weather kicked off in WA's Midwest, Pilbara and Goldfields late yesterday, hitting communities spread across thousands of kilometres.

Station caretaker Kez Mac was driving north of Mount Magnet, about 560km north-east of Perth, when the hail hit her vehicle. Hail literally covered the ground, she said, to the point it looked like a white Christmas. Trees had been stripped and the red rock sat under a white floor, she said, adding she'd never seen anything like it in her years in the region. Once the hail passed, a dust storm whipped up as she pulled into Mount Magnet, leaving debris and branches scattered on the road.

About 16mm of rain fell in Ogilvie, 60km from Geraldton, bringing harvest to a halt. Harrison Pluschke said he still had roughly two weeks of work left on his property, describing a pretty wet harvest with a couple of days of rain in previous weeks and four or five days where harvesting was impossible. Rainfall was all over the place, he said, with some neighbours reporting up to 50mm and others as little as 5mm.

In Northampton, farmer Scott Bridgeman welcomed the cooler, milder conditions. Hot weather is more stressful with fires, he said, and the cool spell meant less worry about running hard.

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the system that hit Mount Magnet was particularly intense and slow-moving, dumping 30 millimetres of rain in just 30 minutes. Sporadic storms are normal this time of year, he said, but day-after-day showers and thunderstorms across the northern Wheatbelt and inland areas are a little more unusual. He expects hit-and-miss storms to hang around WA's inland areas over the coming days.

The cloud cover has also eased the heatwave that gripped parts of the Kimberley and Pilbara last week. Fitzroy Crossing hit 47.1 degrees and Mandora 47.4 degrees last Wednesday, breaking the record for the hottest November day, while Pilbara temperatures reached the low 40s. Narramore said conditions have eased over the last day or two, with widespread cloud, showers and cooler winds possibly running five to eight degrees below average for this time of year.