[Posted 8PM Fri Nov 21, Darwin time]
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello and welcome to Tomorrow News. I am Dhana Ba. Tropicl cyclone FINA heads for Australia’s northwest coast as a rare and destructive weather system. A rare November cyclone could intensify to a category 3 weather event, bringing new heavy rain and destructive winds gust of up to 155 km per hour to the top end Saturday.
The Bureau of Meteorology said slow moving tropical cyclone Fina had dropped to a category 1, but the dangerous weather system is expected to intensify as it tracks southwest on Friday.
There continue to remain a chance that it could reach achieve category 3 intensity earlier during late Friday or early Saturday as it moves into the WMA Gulf. The weather service bureau said in its latest update. The weather agency urged the thousands of locals living across the Northern Territory to monitor for updates with warnings of voracious winds strong enough to rip off roofs, knock down trees, and cut power.
Heavy rain triggering flash flooding, huge waves and storm surge are also possible. Meteorologist says coastal residents are specifically warned of a dangerous storm tide as the cyclone center crosses the coast during Friday and Saturday. The bureau said tides are likely to rise significantly above the normal high tide with damaging waves and dangerous falls.
Those in Darwin are being warned that they could feel the effects on Saturday. Darwin is now in the cyclone watch area and that's because there is a risk of gales on Saturday probably from later in the morning into the afternoon. Bureau of Metology Community Engagement Manager Jude Scott said on Thursday.
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Prior to that it was the seven tropical cyclone Juan that ravaged parts of the northern and western coats in 1975. It caused significant damage particularly in the port area and remained one of the most intense tropical cyclone to have affected Australia. In December 2023, cyclone Chesper crossed the far north Queensland coast. New Wajula Wajula as the category 2 system unleashing destructive winds and torrential rain that caused major flooding cut power to tens of the thousands of homes and triggered landslides that shut key roads. That's all for now.
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TRANSCRIPT
Good day folks. Chris Nitsai, weather IQ. Welcome to a weather IQ update this evening. looking at tropical cyclone FINA which has recently been re-upgraded back to a category system. It has been developing nicely. Well, nicely could be a subjective word. Through the day, the system is tracking in a general southwesterly direction.
Now, very curiously tonight and for Darwin residents especially, the biggest curiosity tonight is going to be whether the cyclone interacts with land and starts moving further to the west overnight. So, in a bit more of a west southwesterly motion, or whether the cyclone will interact with the land, but that land interaction won't create any significant deviation.
The worst case scenario for Darwin is if the land mass creates no significant deviation and the cyclone continues tracking southwest. We'll see a direct crossing or a situation where Darwin ends up in the destructive core of the cyclone circulation tomorrow evening. versus a cyclone that deviates a bit more to the west.
Darwin may just escape outside of the destructive core. So all eyes tonight on and overnight tonight into very very early hours of tomorrow how the cyclone will interact with the land mass. Models are divided in what they do here. Some of them bring the cyclone in a more westerly direction sparing Darwin the worst.
Some of them beeline directly over the top of the peninsula and put it over the Cobberg peninsula and put it straight over the top of Darwin.
The gale windfield is much larger, but the stuff that's going to destroy things is much smaller. The gales could knock down a couple of trees, absolutely knock down a couple of fences, absolutely, but they won't create much structural damage.
Destructive winds are, as you can imagine, destructive and not just destructive to flora. So, what we're looking for here is how close does the center of the circulation get to Darwin.
Now, on the current Bureau of Meteorology track, bearing in mind that there is still a massive error margin. You can still see for this time given the fact that the cyclone is literally hours out.
That brings into the possibilities of that slightly more westward shift of the cyclone or the possibility that the cyclone will continue on its merry way directly southwest. So what we've got here is a is a track forecast that sort of marries the two scenarios up a little bit and sort of splits the difference.
Now in this scenario, this is why is so important. In this scenario, Darwin closest point of approach of the cyclone is literally km away. That means the destructive core is on your doorstep but not there yet.
Nightcliffe, which is right on the coast, it's in there in the destructive core. That's the sort of finicky numbers that we're dealing with here. So understand every single jut south of that track or jut north of that track is absolutely crucial.
So every time I'm sure the bureau that are putting this out, they're very very thoughtful and mindful of exactly where the cyclone center goes because of that km radius. km radius of the destructive stuff. I think there's I think it's a foregone conclusion now that even if the cyclone does adopt a more westerly track, Darwin will still find itself at some stage in the gale radius. It's the destructive stuff that we're interested in and concerned about. At this stage, the cyclone appears to be at its closest point of approach to Darwin sometime tomorrow evening, likely between about and p.m. at night. it may even be delayed further if this land interaction slows the cyclone down a bit in the next few hours or in the next to hours. But at this stage, sometime tomorrow evening is when the cyclone will be at its closest point of approach to Darwin. Right. When it comes to rainfall effects, the cyclone won't be producing very heavy rain over Darwin tonight. there will be some gusty thunderstorms and we've seen those contracting towards the coast as we go into the overnight early morning period. We're still not expecting very heavy rain, but the moderate rain will start to increase in intensity as the morning goes on, but the the heavier rainfall aspects will start probably from mid to late afternoon and peak into the early evening into the early to mid evening and then the rainfall will start to settle down early on Sunday. But it is going to be a very wild and woolly evening in this setup where the cyclone is right on that borderline of being right in of of that destructive core. Now the heavy rain is primarily going to be along and in the core of the cyclone and just to the east of the core of the cyclone. So that's why we can see this purple area extending east of the core like you can see on your screen there. Right. Rainfall between now and Monday….
Because of the way it's coming at us, the winds are going to be offshore. So that means we've got to get really close, up close and personal with the cyclone on the way in for it to be producing very strong winds over the city. END OF TRANSCRIPT, VIDEO CONTINUES
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[KE: Everything climate scientists predicted about global warming/ climate change since the 1970s is coming true, only faster]
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