Severe heatwave cancels event, closes popular abalone fishing spot as season begins
Lifeguards keeping a watchful eye on abalone fishers at Mettam's Pool. (ABC News: Nicholas Martyr)
In short:
Perth is in the grip of its hottest spell of the summer so far, with temperatures tipped to hit 40 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
Damaging thunderstorms are also forecast for Perth on Sunday, but with not much rain predicted authorities are on alert for bushfires.
The heat caused the closure of Penguin Island, just as abalone fishing season began, and forced an event at Government House to be cancelled.
A severe heatwave has forced authorities to close Penguin Island and cancel a popular event at Government House this weekend, with Perth temperatures forecast to hit 37 degrees Celsius on Saturday and 40C on Sunday.
The WA Parks and Wildlife Service closed Penguin Island Conservation Park, one of the areas in which abalone fishing is permitted, on Friday, citing hot temperatures.
The 2025/26 abalone fishing season began on Saturday morning.
The Bureau of Meteorology has a "severe heatwave" warning in place for the Lower West, South West, South Coastal, South East Coastal and Great Southern areas.
It has forecast hot and windy conditions for Perth this weekend, with a storm "likely" on Sunday.
Senior meteorologist Angeline Prasad called it a "trifecta situation" for fire weather.
A fire in Kenwick kept Perth firefighters busy this week. (ABC News: Cason Ho )
"We are looking at a lot of heat, a lot of wind, but also thunderstorms in the landscape," Ms Prasad said.
Fire worry
The dry thunderstorms are not likely to produce much rainfall, creating dangerous fire conditions.
"Because there is not much rainfall, any lightning strikes have got the capability of producing wildfires in the landscape," Ms Prasad said.
Angeline Prasad described the heat, wind and lightning as a dangerous "trifecta". (ABC News: Grace Burmas)
Damaging thunderstorms are forecast for Perth on Sunday and are expected to extend down to the south coast.
"The main hazardS we are expecting are damaging wind gusts and wind gusts getting up to 90 kilometres per hour," Ms Prasad said.
The evenings are not expected to bring much of a reprieve from the warm weather, with overnight temperatures forecast to stay around 24-25 degrees in Perth.
Island closed
The closure of Penguin Island came on the eve of the first day of the WA abalone fishing season, which saw hundreds of avid fishers take to the coastline between Busselton Jetty and Greenough River Mouth on Saturday morning.
This fisher came away with a good haul. (ABC News: Nicholas Martyr)
The highly anticipated one-hour fishing session between 7am and 8am is one of only four opportunities for abalone fans to get their fix each year.
Abalone is a prized catch at this time of year. (ABC News: Nicholas Martyr)
Dozens of fisheries officers and 170 surf lifesavers patrolled beaches in the designated West Coast fishing zone to ensure punters were following rules and fishing safely.
Eleven rescues were carried out by volunteer lifesavers and 21 people were given first aid.
Fisheries inspectors patrolling Mettam's Pool on Saturday morning. (ABC News: Nicholas Martyr)
Thirty-one fines and 33 warnings were issued to people for a range of offences including exceeding the bag limit, collecting undersize abalone, fishing unlicensed and shucking.
Fishers must have a recreational licence and are only allowed to take 15 Roe's abalone, measuring more than 60 millimetres, each session.
The start of the season drew a crowd to Mettam's Pool. (ABC News: Nicholas Martyr)
Government House event cancelled
The severe heatwave conditions also forced Governor of Western Australia Chris Dawson to cancel his annual open weekend event at Government House.
In a statement, Mr Dawson said the cancellation was "extremely disappointing" but "public safety may be put at risk" if the event were to go ahead.
Chris Dawson says the cancellation was disappointing. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
The event comprises mostly outdoor activities in the gardens of Government House and has been deemed "unsafe to proceed".
Food for the event has been donated to a charity to be redistributed.
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