Warning to Aussies as Tropical Cyclone Fina forms off coast of Northern Territory
Tropical Cyclone Fina has intensified to Category 2 as it tracks toward the Northern Territory, threatening communities with destructive winds and dangerous storm tides.
Residents of the Northern Territory are being urged to prepare now as Tropical Cyclone Fina moves closer, with wild winds and heavy rains expected even before it makes landfall.
Fina – one of the earliest cyclones to form since the 1980s – is now a Category 2 cyclone and is expected to move south towards the northern Top End coast on Thursday.
Authorities warn it there is a possibility it could become a Category 3 when it crosses the coast and moves towards Darwin on Friday or Saturday.
“These systems move erratically and there is always a possibility that it may intensify into a Category 3 system as it makes its way toward the coast,” Bureau of Meteorology NT senior officer Jude Scott said.
“With the way the cyclone is moving we’re likely to see the impact in Darwin with rainy and windy days ahead, Saturday will be the main day for the Darwin area but it may come as early as Friday.”
But Fina is expected to impact the Top End even before it crosses.
NT Emergency Service chief officer Wayne Snell urged those in the Top End to make an emergency cyclone plan.
“Make sure that you have a plan for your family that includes what you are going to do should the cyclone make landfall here,” he said.
He said most of the buildings in Darwin and its greater region had been built to withstand a mid-range category four cyclone.
“The safest place for you to … be is to actually stay in your residential home,” he said.
NT Police Acting Assistant Commissioner James O’Brien said emergency protocols were ready and the Territory Emergency Operations Centre had been opened.
Extra officers had been sent to the Tiwi Islands, Minjilang and Warruwi to held those communities prepare.
How Fina is tracking
The Bureau of Meteorology said Fina would move southwest on Friday and Saturday, affecting areas over the northwest coast of the Top End.
The cyclone was located 375km northeast of Darwin and 185km north of Minjilang and was moving east at 9km/h at 4.30pm on Wednesday.
BOM advised sustained winds of 95km/h were recorded near the centre with wind gusts up to 130km/h.
A Watch Zone is in place for Cape Fourcroy to Milingimbi, the Tiwi Islands, Cobourg Peninsula and Gunbalanya.
“Gales with damaging wind gusts to 120km/h may develop between Cape Don and Warruwi during Thursday and extend east to Maningrida overnight Thursday,” a BOM spokesman said.
“Gales are expected to extend further west to include the Tiwi Islands later Friday.
“Gales may extend further east to Milingimbi if the system takes a track further east.”
BOM advised tides may be higher than normal around the Tiwi Islands, Cape Hotham and Milingimbi from early Thursday morning.
Coastal residents were warned a dangerous storm tide could occur as the cyclone centre crosses the coast on Friday and Saturday.
“Tides are likely to rise significantly above the normal high tide, with damaging waves and dangerous flooding,” a BOM spokesman said.
BOM is expected to issue an update by 10.30pm on Wednesday.
Tropical Cyclone Fina was primed by warm ocean temperatures over the Timor Sea overnight.
Shortly after 3.30am Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology officially classified the tropical low as a category one tropical cyclone.
Meteorologist Jonathan How said the extreme conditions would continue in the next day or so.
Tropical Cyclone Fina is forecast to turn south then southwest on Thursday, dragging the winds to the Northern Territory coast, where it could make landfall by Friday or Saturday.
“It is quite a broad mass of just cloud and storms at the moment, but over the last day or so, we have started to see a circulation develop and showing … signs of strengthening,” he told NewsWire.
Earliest cyclone in years
Fina is the first storm of the cyclone season.
Mr How told NewsWire while tropical cyclone season officially kicks off on November 1, Fina was coming in “very early”.
“If (Tropical Cyclone Fina) does make landfall in the next week or so, (it will be) the earliest Northern Territory crossing since we started recording back in the 1980s,” Mr How said.
“So it’s about a month early.”
The bureau generally does not anticipate tropical cyclones developing until “late December”.
The last time a tropical cyclone affected the NT so early in November was Category 1 Cyclone Alessia in 2013.
Originally published as Warning to Aussies as Tropical Cyclone Fina forms off coast of Northern Territory
