00:00Well, it is a busy week weather-wise, so let's check in with the Bureau of Meteorology.
00:07Miriam Bradbury joins us now.
00:10Hi there, Miriam.
00:11Let's start in Queensland.
00:12We were just hearing about the flood warnings there across the north.
00:16Take me through the current warnings at the moment.
00:21So we have quite a number of flood warnings and flood watches in place across much of Queensland,
00:27spilling back into eastern parts of the Northern Territory as well.
00:30The key areas we're focusing on at the moment are the Flinders River catchment,
00:34which currently has a major flood warning in place,
00:37and also for the Cloncurry River, currently with a moderate flood warning.
00:41Now, we are expecting further heavy falls over the coming days,
00:44which means many of our flood watch areas may be upgraded to flood warnings,
00:48and we'll see the severity of that flooding increasing.
00:51For noting, we do have those flood watches extending over broad areas of Queensland,
00:56not just the northern, sorry, the northwestern and western areas,
01:00but pushing all the way through to that north tropical coast as well.
01:03A few minor flood warnings along the north tropical coast,
01:06but that rain will continue to fall,
01:08and we are likely to see this riverine flooding event continuing for some time.
01:13When you say some time,
01:14how long are you expecting this rain and these flooding concerns to be around?
01:19We are unfortunately expecting that risk of widespread moderate to high rainfall totals
01:28to continue over the next few days,
01:31gradually starting to pull back on those top rainfall numbers
01:34through the Thursday, Friday period.
01:36Now, that comes as the monsoon trough and the monsoon low pressure system,
01:40which is driving all of this rain,
01:42they start to weaken off.
01:43So we're still going to see rain and thunderstorms continuing into the weekend,
01:47but hopefully those top rainfall totals will start to pull back.
01:51That is good news,
01:52but as is the case with riverine,
01:54or as is always the case, I should say,
01:56with riverine flooding,
01:57particularly through Queensland,
01:58the water can move quite slowly through our river catchments,
02:01and we may see riverine flooding impacting some communities
02:04for days, if not weeks to come.
02:06Okay, let's head over to WA now.
02:11All eyes are on tropical cyclone Hayley.
02:13Where is the system sitting this morning?
02:18So severe tropical cyclone Hayley is currently a Category 4 system,
02:22sitting around 250 kilometres to the northwest of Broome.
02:26Now, it is moving southeast towards the Kimberley Coast.
02:30We do have a tropical cyclone warning extending from areas just north of Broome
02:33all the way up to Curie Bay,
02:35and that does include the Dampier Peninsula and Derby.
02:38Now, really, that tropical cyclone warning is telling us
02:41that we're expecting widespread gale force winds,
02:44destructive wind gusts up to 150 or 170 kilometres an hour.
02:48We expect that to develop through today into tomorrow
02:51as this system draws near to the coast.
02:54It is expected to drop back to a Category 3 system
02:56before it hits the coast,
02:58but a Category 3 system is still a severe tropical cyclone.
03:01So very wet, very windy, very destructive weather
03:05is expected for that coastline over the next 24 to 48 hours, unfortunately.
03:10Yeah, as you say, Category 3 system is still a pretty severe system
03:15to be crossing the coast.
03:17Just exactly what can people expect
03:20and when would they start to see the wind really picking up?
03:24So we are likely to see the wind really ramping up from around midday to day,
03:31but peaking as that system draws closer through this afternoon and evening.
03:35Now, currently, the landfall is forecast for sometime this evening,
03:38and it's when the eye of that tropical cyclone crosses the coast
03:41that we're most likely to see those strongest wind gusts.
03:45But gradually, we will see that rain ramping up through this afternoon
03:49in particular, with the winds picking up as well.
03:53Now, we will see conditions easing back
03:55after the system makes landfall.
03:57It will gradually weaken back to a tropical low,
03:59but it may be some days
04:00before we see the rain clearing away across the Kimberley.
04:03All right, Miriam Bridebury there from the Bureau of Meteorology.
04:06Thanks very much for the update.
04:07We'll see you next time.
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