Water, power use soars in heat

Searing heat and a lack of rain have sent water and power use soaring while households reliant on rainwater have run dry.

The temperature at Swanbourne peaked at 42.2C at 1.14pm yesterday, although the official Perth maximum was 41.5C at 3.15pm.

The sweltering weather is set to continue today with temperatures tipped to reach 40C.

The heat has come at the end of a long dry spell and is of concern for the 44,000 Perth households who use rainwater tanks.

Water carting business owner Shirley Fernihough said she was delivering nearly double the amount of water to Perth homes compared with last year.

Dams across WA were 42.5 per cent full yesterday, which was still 56.89GL higher than on February 25 last year, due to strong winter rains.
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