Ex-Tropical Cyclone Lincoln expected to re-strengthen

Australian Community Media

Severe weather is moving offshore near Broome in Western Australia as it moves southwest over the coastline. It's expected to gain energy before returning to the land around Exmouth at a Category 1 on Friday February 23, 2024.

Transcript

00:00 Ex-tropical cyclone Lincoln is expected to re-strengthen to tropical cyclone intensity

00:05 within the next 24 hours. The system is currently sitting off the Kimberley coast,

00:10 just under 300 kilometres to the northwest of Broome. It's generating significant cloud,

00:16 rain and thunderstorms, but as the system moves further offshore it's taking a lot of that severe

00:20 weather with it, leaving patchier showers across the Kimberley in its wake, mostly along the

00:26 coastal fringe. Over the next couple of days this tropical low, the ex-tropical cyclone,

00:31 will continue to move southwest adjacent to the Western Australia coastline. As it moves over

00:37 those warmer waters however, it will start to gain energy and intensity, reaching a category one

00:44 tropical cyclone intensity sometime overnight tonight into tomorrow morning. And that's really

00:49 when we're going to start seeing impacts developing for the far west coast of Western Australia.

00:55 So let's zoom in and take a closer look at those impacts. Now the yellow area is our current

01:01 tropical cyclone watch. In the watch area, which currently extends from Roeburn down to Manila

01:06 Roadhouse and includes Dampier, Karratha and Exmouth, we expect to see sustained gale force

01:12 winds developing within the next 24 to 48 hours. Damaging wind gusts that may reach 100 kilometres

01:19 an hour are also possible and winds of this strength can bring down trees or power lines

01:24 and also cause quite dangerous marine conditions out on the water. Now these strong winds are likely

01:31 to develop through the northern parts of our watch area tomorrow morning, gradually extending

01:36 into the southern parts of the watch area through tomorrow afternoon as the system gets closer.

01:42 The tropical cyclone is likely to move southwards and continue intensifying to a category two system

01:50 through the later part of Friday into early Saturday. As it nears the coast, we'll see

01:55 rainfall picking up as well as those stronger winds. Widespread moderate falls are possible,

02:01 with the heaviest rainfall tied to thunderstorms near the tropical cyclone. It's likely to start

02:07 moving gradually to the southeast at this time, expected to make a landfall sometime during

02:13 Saturday to the south of Exmouth. As it makes that landfall, that's when we will see the most

02:19 intense impacts. Destructive wind gusts up to 140 kilometres an hour are possible and very heavy

02:26 rainfall that could lead to flash flooding. As it moves over land however, it will rapidly start to

02:32 weaken and as it moves inland it will drop back to a tropical low very quickly into Sunday. Now the

02:39 rainfall that this system will bring is likely to be heaviest close to that system, but we may see

02:44 some patchier showers and storms ahead of it across those more southwestern parts of Western

02:50 Australia. Widespread moderate totals are likely to accumulate over this weekend with the heavier

02:56 falls as I mentioned along the track of that cyclone. In anticipation of the rainfall we do

03:01 have a number of flood watches current, four catchments along the Pilbara and Gascoigne coast

03:06 areas with river rises potentially leading to road and access issues as water moves over the roads.

03:12 They may be restricted to four-wheel drive access only or cut completely. As this situation

03:19 continues to develop over the next 24 hours or so in particular, it's essential to stay up to

03:24 date via the Bureau's website or the BOM Weather app. Stay safe and we'll catch you in the next

03:29 update.

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