Severe Thunderstorm Warning Issued for South East Coastal District
If you are in immediate danger, call emergency services now.
For real-time, official alerts and instructions for your exact location, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia) as applicable. This article is a data summary, not a substitute for the issuing agency's live warning.
Areazine synthesizes this BoM weather warning directly from BOM's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
A severe thunderstorm warning for damaging winds has been issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for parts of the South East Coastal district in Western Australia, affecting areas like Esperance and Salmon Gums.
What this BoM weather warning tells you, and what most readers miss
This notice was issued by BOM on April 20, 2026 and geographically references South East Coastal District, Western Australia. Its severity classification of "high" signals how the issuing agency weighs the risk of harm if no action is taken - "critical" and "high" tier alerts typically carry direct consumer actions, while "medium" and "low" tend toward informational guidance or monitoring advisories. The category it belongs to - Weather Warnings - determines the warning protocol behind it, which shapes what protective action (seeking shelter, following evacuation orders if issued, monitoring official updates) is recommended and which agency holds authority to issue or cancel it.
Most readers skim a notice like this, check whether they are personally affected, and move on. The more useful lens is to read it as a data point about the issuing system: how quickly BOM detected the hazard, how precise the geographic or product-identifier scope is, and whether similar notices have clustered in the same category or region in the last 90 days. Cluster patterns frequently precede a broader regulatory action, a single localized BoM weather warning is isolated; three of them within a quarter often indicate a supply-chain, infrastructure, or seasonal driver that will keep producing notices until something structural changes.
For decision-making, Areazine pairs each alert with the original agency URL, the full agency name, and a timestamp so you can verify the notice against the primary source before acting on it. Tags on this item (weather, alert, SevereThunderstormWarning, SouthEastCoastal) map to related alerts in the same area of risk - browsing them together gives a clearer picture than any single notice alone, because the shape of an ongoing issue only becomes visible across multiple sequential alerts.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of Western Australia, urging residents to take immediate precautions due to potential damaging winds.
Alert Details
This is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, issued by the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. It was issued at 2:48 pm local time on Monday, 20 April 2026, and remains in effect until its expiry time.
Affected Areas
The warning covers parts of the South East Coastal district in Western Australia. Specific locations that may be affected include Esperance and Salmon Gums.
What You Should Do
Residents in the warning area should: If outside, find safe shelter away from trees, power lines, storm water drains, and streams. Close your curtains and blinds, and stay inside away from windows. Unplug electrical appliances and do not use land line telephones if there is lightning. If there is flooding, create your own sandbags by using pillow cases filled with sand and place them around doorways. If boating, swimming, or surfing, leave the water. Do not drive into water of unknown depth and current. Slow down and turn your headlights on. Be alert and watch for hazards on the road such as fallen power lines and loose debris. If it is raining heavily and you cannot see, pull over and park with your hazard lights on until the rain clears.
Expected Conditions
Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging wind gusts in the warning area. These are caused by strengthening northwesterly winds combined with an unstable airmass, producing fast-moving thunderstorms over the South East Coastal district this afternoon.
Timeline
The alert was issued at 2:48 pm on Monday, 20 April 2026, and is effective immediately. It is set to expire at 10:48:44 UTC on the same day, with the next warning update due by 5:50 pm local time.
Original source: BOM Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Warnings
All Weather Warnings →Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this BoM weather warning.