MANY parts of regional Western Australia were hit with a large amount of rain last week.
This was due to a cut-off low forming off the west coast of Geraldton with cool air as its centre, which created rainfall bands and thunderstorm activity.
The low slowly moved eastwards over the later part of last week and over the weekend and is now sitting to the south east of Esperance.
The Great Southern received the highest average amount of rain, with Pingelly West recording a massive 88 millimetres.
With 72mm of rain, Brookton was a close second.
What is a cut-off low?
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Jessica Lingard said it was easiest to think of it like a lava lamp.
"There's the lava at the bottom and then it bubbles up into this weird tear-droppy shape and then it 'snaps off' and rises to the top - that's what a cut-off low looks like," Ms Lingard said.
"It starts off like a trough and then bubbles up to the south of Australia, then for some reason it snaps off and it becomes this closed circulation of a low pressure system."
While a cut-off low is unusual, it's definitely not abnormal.
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This isn't the end for wet weather, which is a relief to many farmers, as a couple of cold fronts are arriving later this week.
"There is a weaker one coming through on Wednesday and Thursday, it's unlikely to push too far inland and reach the agricultural areas, it's likely to be more coastal and stay on the south-western corner of the State," Ms Lingard said.
"On Friday there is a stronger cold front moving through and that's going to connect up with a bit of a cloud bound that's going to develop over the western Pilbara and western Gascoyne.
"So those two features will move through on Friday and are likely to see some decent rainfall pushing all the way through to the Goldfields on Friday afternoon."
