00:00Good morning, it's Angus here at the Bureau of Meteorology.
00:03I wanted to get into the studio nice and early this morning
00:05so I could let you see what we are seeing with severe tropical cyclone Norell.
00:10And that is that the severe tropical cyclone has made landfall
00:14in northeastern parts of Queensland as a Category 4 system
00:18and will bring some severe weather across northern parts through today, Friday.
00:23Now this is going to be a short update, we will have a longer severe weather update
00:26later on today talking about the forecast.
00:28But for now, let's just discuss what we are seeing.
00:31And the best way to do that is by looking at our rain radar imagery.
00:34We can see widespread rain across the peninsula through the course of this morning.
00:37But in particular, look out for how this rain circles around a central point
00:42which we can see just in the last couple of hours.
00:44So the centre of this area is the centre of our low pressure
00:47and the centre of our low pressure is the centre of our tropical cyclone.
00:51And that has made landfall at about 7am Queensland time this morning,
00:5650 kilometres to the north-east of Cohen as a Category 4 tropical cyclone.
01:01The orange area is the warning region.
01:04That still includes locations like Lockhart River, Cohen and Cape Flattery in the east,
01:08Mapoon, Weepa and Pomparau in the west.
01:11These areas will have a significant day of weather,
01:14including the potential for some very destructive wind gusts.
01:17The strongest winds will be right near the centre of the tropical cyclone
01:21where we could see wind speeds reach or exceed 200 kilometres an hour.
01:26Across broader regions, winds could reach 120 to 160 kilometres an hour.
01:31These winds are strong enough to strip or uproot entire trees
01:35and cause significant property damage.
01:38Rain has started to fall heavily and that will continue on Friday,
01:41bringing risks of flash flooding and riverine flooding.
01:44Some locations are already over 100 millimetres of rain for the day
01:47and a few hundred more could still fall on Friday,
01:50bringing our totals for the 24 hours up in excess of 300, possibly 400 millimetres,
01:56especially along the path of the tropical cyclone.
01:59And dangerous seas are expected, including very high tides and very large and powerful surf.
02:05So hopefully everyone is staying well clear of those dangerous oceans.
02:09I'm not going to get too far into the forecast for this short video,
02:12but just a quick look at timing for Friday.
02:14This weather system will start off on the east coast
02:17and gradually cross the Cape York Peninsula through the day.
02:20It is likely to drop from a Category 4 system to a Category 2 system throughout Friday
02:25and eventually tonight, around 8 or 9pm,
02:28leave the west coast and move out into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
02:33As I said earlier, we will have a longer severe weather video
02:35talking about the forecast as the system moves towards the Northern Territory
02:39in the next few days, but you can always get track updates,
02:42warning updates and forecast information on the Bureau website
02:45and the BOM weather app.
02:46Thanks for watching and stay safe.
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