Albany gets big wet

Albany is having one of its wettest winters in recent memory.

Picture by Laurie Benson

Bureau of Meteorology figures show Albany is poised to exceed its average August rainfall total two weeks before the month ends.

Bureau station manager Jason Balhorn said the city centre had recorded about 110mm of rain so far in August, compared to the month’s usual average of 126mm.

In the latest downpour, a strong cold front dumped almost 40mm of rain and brought hail overnight on Monday, while winds whipped up a strong swell around the coast.

Mr Balhorn said it had been a dramatic change from last winter, when rainfall totals fell woefully short of their averages, and came after one of the wettest July's in recent history.

The results have lifted Albany’s year-to-date rainfall total to about 640mm, which is only marginally less than the long-term average of 674mm to the end of August.

Mr Balhorn said the weather might have seemed unusually %wet but this perception reflected the dryness of much of the past decade.