Cyclone Narelle could smash into coast as category 5 monster
Cyclone Narelle may strengthen into a category 5 storm before hitting the Far North Queensland coast; the weather bureau predicts it could hit as early as Thursday night.
Senior meteorologist Christie Johnson said the hurricane was named hours earlier than originally predicted.
“At this time yesterday morning, I was talking about this condensing to category 1 overnight, instead yesterday afternoon it became category 1 and it intensified to category 2 overnight,” he said.
“It looks like it will follow a very westward path and continue to intensify.”
A warning was issued by the Met Office before 5am on Wednesday He said the storm was recorded with winds of up to 110 km/h and gusts of up to 155 km/h.
It remained about 1050 kilometers west of the Australian coastline by mid-morning on Wednesday.
Johnson said there’s an 80 to 90 percent chance that Hurricane Narelle will remain intact along the coastline, and the weather bureau is pretty confident the system will strengthen within a few days.
“I would be very surprised if he managed to lose weight, given the environment he was in,” he said.
“As it approaches the shore it may weaken slightly and reach category 3, or there is even a chance it could approach the upper-end category 4 or even category 5 if it stays above water a little longer.”
The weather bureau narrowed down Hurricane Narelle’s potential strike zone to about 260 kilometers of coastline between Cooktown and Coen.
As the storm made landfall, communities near the center of the storm were warned that winds of up to 120 mph were possible.
Damaging winds were expected between the Port Douglas and Lockhart River areas on Thursday, while coastal towns between Coen and Cooktown were warned of wind gusts of up to 155 km/h on Thursday night.
Modeling had previously indicated that the hurricane “could shake out a little bit” as it approached the coast, but Johnson said uncertainty in the system’s path is now concentrated on its east-to-west track, which will affect how quickly the storm moves to the coastline.
“Our overnight modeling has slowed that down a little bit, so it’s pushing it further into Friday,” Johnson said.
“The earliest we expect it to reach the coast would be Thursday afternoon or evening.
“Of course, we’ll start to see the effects before they reach shore.”
He said the storm was likely to last only 12 hours over land and thunderstorms could travel from the Queensland coast to Ingham and northern parts of Townsville.
Johnson said the rain could affect soggy parts of Queensland further inland that were already prone to flooding.
