Wild weather batters Aussie state already suffering from wildfires

Wild weather is continuing to wreak havoc in Western Australia state as flash flooding from heavy rains is battering the region already suffering from devastating bushfires.

More than 170 millimetres of heavy rain fell in the southwest of the state in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, approximately 300 kilometres from Perth, creating a significant economic loss for the region's farmers.

"The potato industry ... the plum industry and the apricot industry will have a lot of splitting," Manjimup Shire President Wade DeCampo told Australia's national broadcaster late on Tuesday.

"The brassica industry - cauliflowers and broccoli would have been washed out."

Cattle producers will also be affected as the flash flooding and heavy rains likely soak dry feed stores; however, cows won't have much to eat after grass and pastureland was washed away.

Meanwhile, 160 kilometres to the north, a wildfire or bushfire as it's commonly known in Australia, is still raging, though contained, after razing 143 properties in the major beef and diary farming areas of Western Australia state.

Wildfires are an annual summer event in Australia; however, the authorities have been on high alert since September last year over unseasonably warm temperatures, prompting scientists and climate activists to speculate climate change could be extending an increasing of the intensity of the fire season.

The wild weather has also been attributed to the ongoing El Nino weather system that's inundating Australia and the South Pacific.

Australia's weather bureau on Tuesday said the El Nino weather pattern, third strongest on record, will likely end in the second quarter of 2016.