Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia bearing down on Western Australia

Australian Community Media

Wild weather is expected across Western Australia as Cyclone Zelia intensifies.

Transcript

00:00Severe tropical cyclone Zelia is expected to make a landfall on the

00:03Pilbara coast later this afternoon, bringing wind gusts possibly reaching as

00:07high as 290 kilometres an hour. Looking at the system on our current radar

00:12imagery we can see the clearly defined core of the system, bands of showers and

00:17thunderstorms are wrapping around the cyclone. Now watching through this

00:21imagery quite fast we can see that southeasterly track of the system as it

00:26moves from out over the ocean and in towards the Pilbara coast. Through the

00:30course of today we are expecting severe tropical cyclone Zelia to continue

00:34moving in a southwards direction towards that Pilbara coastline. At this point in

00:39time the Category 5 system is expected to drop southwards through the rest of

00:44the morning and into the afternoon, likely making a coastal crossing around

00:48mid to late afternoon. Now the forecast has been shifting back and forth as the

00:53cyclone shifts back and forth off the coast, but the current analysis has that

00:57tropical cyclone coastal crossing time at around 4 p.m. Western Standard Time,

01:02most likely to the east of Port Hedland. Now that is some good news, it means that

01:07the hardest hitting impacts are likely to be seen to the east of Port Hedland,

01:11however our broader area of impacts still extends from Wallal Downs all the

01:16way down to Roeburn, that is captured in our tropical cyclone warning area. Now at

01:21the time of coastal crossing we will see the most intense impacts, although we're

01:25likely to see those winds and rain building throughout the course of today.

01:28So the impacts we are likely to see include widespread destructive wind

01:32gusts, at least 120 to 160 kilometres an hour likely within our warning area

01:37between Wallal Downs and Roeburn, including around the Port Hedland area.

01:41But the strongest wind gusts are likely to be seen when the tropical cyclone

01:45core crosses the coast this afternoon, it's at that time we could see wind gusts

01:49up to 290 kilometres an hour close to the core of that system. Now to put that

01:54into perspective, with a severe thunderstorm we might see wind gusts of

01:5790, 100 kilometres an hour, possibly 110 or 120 if it's a particularly strong

02:02system. So to expect wind gusts up to 290 kilometres an hour really tells how

02:08strong and intense this Category 5 system is. Wind gusts that strong are

02:13likely to lead to destruction of trees and permanent structures in the path of

02:18that system. We're also likely to see heavy to locally intense rainfall moving

02:22in with this system, most likely near and to the east of the tropical cyclone as

02:26it pushes on to the coast. That means high rain rates and the risk of flash

02:30flooding will continue through this afternoon, feeding into our river

02:33catchments and potentially leading to more riverine flooding as well. Storm

02:38tides and inundation are also likely to be seen as this system approaches then

02:42crosses the coast with high tides and large waves washing up and potentially

02:47causing some inundation damage. Now again the strongest and most dangerous

02:52impacts are likely when we see the core of this system crossing the coast, but we

02:56could see those impacts anywhere within our tropical cyclone warning area, which

03:00as I mentioned does still extend from Wallal Downs all the way down to

03:03Roeburn. After the coastal crossing later this afternoon we are likely to see this

03:09system dropping inland, moving south and losing intensity over the next couple of

03:14days. Our tropical cyclone warning area does extend well inland including areas

03:19like Wim Creek, Marble Bar, Tom Price even down to Newman at this point in time. In

03:24these areas we could see those very strong winds and heavy rainfall pushing

03:28through with this system. It's definitely worth remembering that the intensity of

03:33a cyclone is based on its wind speed, so that means even as this system starts to

03:38decay, starts to weaken, the winds might be backing off but the rain impacts we

03:43may continue to see could be significant and we certainly are

03:46expecting fairly heavy falls to continue across those inland areas over the next

03:50few days even as the system starts to decay. Taking a look at that now we can

03:55see that as the system drops southwards across the Pilbara and into parts of the

03:59Gascoyne, we continue to see very heavy rain wrapping around the system

04:03particularly to the south and eastern areas of that cyclone track. All of

04:08these areas should be aware of that risk of heavy falls over the coming days and

04:12the flooding impacts that could bring about. As this system nears the coast

04:17over the coming hours you can find hourly updates via our website and the

04:21BOM Weather App. Stay safe and we'll catch you in the next update.

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