Tropical Cyclone Zelia has formed off Western Australia’s north-west coast

A tropical cyclone has formed off the north-west coast of Western Australia. Residents in the Pilbara region are preparing for the potential impact.

Transcript

00:00Tropical Cyclone Zelia has intensified this afternoon to a Category 2 system.

00:07It currently sits around 180km north of where I am in Port Hedland and it's moving slowly towards the south.

00:14It's expected that sometime this week it will intensify to a Category 3 cyclone

00:19before it crosses the coast around about Friday east of Port Hedland.

00:24There is still a lot of uncertainty in the track of this cyclone however

00:28and it could change if weather conditions do change as well.

00:32There is a warning zone for people in an area bounded by Bidjadanga in the north

00:36and Dampier in the far west and it extends inland to the towns of Marble Bar and Nullargyne.

00:42People in this area might be expecting to see some really heavy rainfall

00:46and really strong wind gusts as this system does approach the coast.

00:51We heard from the Bureau of Meteorology a little bit earlier on what this system might bring.

00:56If the system crosses the coast as a severe tropical system

01:00we could see wind gusts in excess of 200km an hour.

01:04But regardless of intensity we expect this system to produce very heavy rainfall

01:09and areas close to the path could see in excess of 500mm over the course of this event.

01:15That heavy rainfall is set to cause some river rises for coastal rivers here in the Pilbara

01:21and combined with the heavy rainfall it could mean that some of the major arterial highways

01:26like the Great Northern Highway and the Northwest Coastal Highway

01:29could be cut off for a number of days, effectively cutting off the northern part of WA.

01:35People are being warned to forego any non-essential travel

01:40and to prepare their homes for the onset of potential cyclonic conditions.