Climate trends - Central
The Central region covers the interior of Western Australia and extends to the coast near the South Australian border. The region is in an arid zone, characterised by infrequent rainfall events and very low annual rainfall.
This area is large and experiences multiple weather influences, including frontal systems in the south near Kalgoorlie, with rainfall from monsoonal and tropical cyclones more common in the north. Long bands of cloud tracking from the north-west to the south-east (north-west cloud bands) can also result in rainfall in late-autumn and early-winter.
Past observations
The Bureau of Meteorology trend maps indicate that there has been a general rise in rainfall. However, this area is large and experiences multiple weather influences so the trends in rainfall are variable across the region. In Kalgoorlie, historical rainfall has increased only slightly, while in other locations increases were relatively large.
Future climate projections
Rainfall could increase or decrease. Many of the global circulation models project little change in average rainfall for the whole region while still showing strong trends in some areas. Mean annual rainfall for the region is projected to increase by 8 per cent under the wettest case at 2050 and decrease by an average of 7 per cent under the driest case.
