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.
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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.