First tropical cyclone of 2025 bears down on Western Australia

Australian Community Media

Severe weather warning in place as Tropical Cyclone Sean develops off Pilbara Coast.

Transcript

00:00Tropical cyclone Sean has developed off the Pilbara coast this morning and will

00:05continue to intensify as we move through the afternoon and evening hours and

00:09cyclone warnings are current. Firstly a quick look at what's happened overnight

00:13and this morning we can see that thunderstorm development around the low

00:16really intensified and solidified around the low-level circulation earlier this

00:21morning and we're getting some pretty nice structure on the radar as well

00:24showing us that we are looking at reaching cyclone strength activity and a

00:29number of our offshore obs are also gusting in excess of 100 kilometers an

00:33hour so that means that we have now got tropical cyclone Sean developing off

00:37the Pilbara coast and continuing to intensify as it moves southwest

00:41parallel to the Pilbara coast. So let's look at all of that right now. Cyclone

00:46warnings are current between Wim Creek and Ningaloo that does include the

00:50communities of Exmouth, Onslow and Karratha. Winds and rain already picking

00:55up through the Dampia and Karratha area likely to also increase later today into

00:59tonight through the Onslow and Exmouth area and also our offshore islands where

01:04we could see destructive winds develop later today and into tonight. So as we

01:09get into the overnight period we'll see it continue to strengthen into a

01:12category 2 system probably sitting somewhere off the Exmouth coast as we

01:16get into the early hours of Monday morning and then it'll continue to move

01:19further away thankfully but continue to intensify as we move into the Monday

01:24time frame and by Monday afternoon we could have a category 3 system sitting

01:28well offshore the WA coast but still could see some heavy rain and strong and

01:33gusty winds through parts of the Pilbara coast. So with those warnings current we

01:38can see this in more detail if we look at the rain and wind field. By later this

01:42afternoon category 1 Sean should be sitting a fair way off the Pilbara coast

01:46but you can see this really strong onshore wind and rain activity. We've

01:50seen falls of around 80 millimetres at Port Hedland and those kind of numbers

01:54will continue to track further down the coast as all this rain and wind offshore

01:58wraps around the system and impacts our coastal communities through the Pilbara

02:02coast today and to tonight and then we'll see as we move into Monday category

02:072 then category 3 system but note that wind field and rain and storms coming

02:11right down into the northwest Capes that's where we could see some damaging

02:15to possibly locally destructive winds particularly for our offshore islands

02:19but our coastal communities are likely to see widespread heavy rain that could

02:22lead to flash flooding as well as damaging winds which could bring down

02:25trees power lines and cause some minor property damage. But thankfully being a

02:29fast-moving system and moving away from the WA coast we're likely to see it

02:34conditions ease as we get into Monday night and Tuesday morning for much of

02:38the Pilbara but still looking at a fairly intense tropical cyclone but

02:41thankfully well offshore. Now all this rainfall we could see falls of 50 to 100

02:47millimetres along our coastal communities and particularly our

02:50offshore islands and as I mentioned that could lead to flash and riverine

02:54flooding and because of that we do have a few flood warnings current sorry flood

02:58watches I should say current for parts of the Pilbara coast and also up through

03:03that community. So to reiterate tropical cyclone warnings are current between

03:07Wim Creek and Ningaloo that does include Exmouth, Onslow and Karratha. Currently

03:12in category 1 system likely to strengthen into a category 2 and the

03:15category 3 as we move during Monday. So if you live in this area or know someone

03:19that does make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings

03:23via our website app and social media and listen to all and any advice from your

03:28local emergency services.

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