00:00Severe tropical cyclone Norell is intensifying offshore, with damaging to destructive wind gusts and heavy falls increasing for parts of
00:08the Pilbara today.
00:09Ilana here from the Bureau with your severe weather update on severe tropical cyclone Norell.
00:14Let's start by having a look at today's satellite imagery.
00:18We can see this system is currently located about 200 kilometres northwest of Port Headland.
00:24And here we can see the development of an eye in the centre of the system, indicating that it is
00:30a severe tropical cyclone and a Category 3 tropical cyclone at that.
00:36The system has brought some significant wind gusts to the area over the past 24 hours.
00:41150 kilometres per hour at Bedout Island, 135 at Legendre Island, 80 kilometres per hour at Port Headland, 100 kilometres
00:50per hour at Karratha,
00:51and further west we've seen 80 kilometres per hour at Barrow Island.
00:57Looking forward, what we're expecting today is that the system will continue to track southwest offshore and eventually intensify into
01:06a Category 4 system.
01:08With that, we do have a tropical cyclone warning and watch zone current.
01:12So starting with this warning area, that's where we're likely to see significant impacts developing over the next 24 hours,
01:20including damaging to destructive winds.
01:23Even some very destructive winds up to and above 200 kilometres per hour are possible.
01:29We will also see an increase in heavy rainfall with flash flooding a risk.
01:34And we're also going to see some increased coastal impacts with some storm tide developing.
01:41And so those hazards are expected to develop about Port Headland and Karratha over the next few hours,
01:48and extending south and west to Exmouth and Coral Bay later today.
01:54We can see looking at the winds around the system here, even though the system is offshore, it is quite
01:59a large system.
02:00So we're seeing some of those very strong wind gusts impact on shore.
02:04Some of those strongest wind gusts are expected about the Exmouth and northwest Cape areas later today.
02:12If we have a look now into tomorrow and focus in on this tropical cyclone watch zone in the yellow.
02:19So that's where we're going to see those damaging to destructive winds, heavy rainfall and damaging storm tide impacts develop
02:28from Friday morning through to Saturday morning.
02:30So Carnarvon during Friday morning, extending down to Denham and Kalbarri during Friday and then into Darylton and Surrounds into
02:39Saturday morning.
02:41Looking at the track map.
02:43So the system will curve around the Exmouth coast as a Category 4 system before hugging the Gascoyne coast and
02:51eventually crossing the coast and continuing south eastwards as it tracks inland, eventually weakening to a tropical low.
03:00That raises the question exactly when and where will the system move on shore?
03:05We are looking at a coastal crossing sometime on Friday evening or Friday night, and it looks most likely about
03:14the Gascoyne coast.
03:15So somewhere between Coral Bay and Kalbarri, with the Denham area looking like the most likely scenario.
03:22We are expecting this system to cross as a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone.
03:29Rainfall is going to be a significant hazard over the next couple of days across much of Western Australia.
03:36So we do have a flood watch current for a large area extending from about Exmouth down to the Swan
03:42River near Perth.
03:44So if we look at some of those areas which could see some significant falls, in particular into Friday we
03:50could see some very heavy falls around that Exmouth and northern Gascoyne coastal areas.
03:56In those areas we could see rainfall totals up to and above 200 millimetres.
04:03Some of these heavy falls are going to extend southwest.
04:07So although Perth is no longer expected to see a direct hit from the tropical cyclone, it's still likely to
04:13see rain impacts as well as some possible damaging winds.
04:17So we can see here across the southwest land division, we're looking at rainfall totals of 50 to 100 millimetres
04:24over the next few days.
04:27Please keep up to date with our forecasts and warnings over the next couple of days.
04:32You can find them as always on our website and app.
04:35Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time.
04:45We'll see you next time.
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