Cyclone Zelia brings cool change to Central Australia as record almost broken for Alice Springs’ hottest February day
A massive weather event off the West Coast has brought a cool change to the Red Centre – as Alice Springs came close to setting a new record for the hottest February day on record. Find out more.
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Rain and cooler weather are coming to the Red Centre off the back of a category five cyclone, just days after Alice Springs almost broke the record for the hottest day recorded in February.
Originally predicted to be a category three, tropical cyclone Zelia has now been upgraded to a category five, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a weather warning for the northwest WA coast.
Bureau predictions have Zelia making landfall on Friday evening, but Bureau senior meteorologist Billy Lynch said the cyclone had already brought cooler weather to Central Australia.
“Despite the system not moving into Central Australia, we’re still getting some cloud cover, a bit of rainfall and cooler temperatures,” he said.
Residents in Central Australia could expect 10 to 20 mm of rain over the next few days, which is expected to end on Sunday, Mr Lynch said.
“(There) might be a little bit of rain lingering on Saturday, but basically the cloud band is weakening on the Saturday and we’ll see some sunnier skies develop over the weekend,” he said.
Temperatures will then be back into the “mid to high 30s,” Mr Lynch said.
On Wednesday, Mr Lynch said the Alice Springs airport weather station recorded the second hottest February day on record for the Bureau, with temperatures reaching 44.1C.
It was a mere 0.6 lower the Bureau’s February record of 44.7C, set in 1998, Mr Lynch said.
The Bureau is predicting tropical cyclone Zelia will head south once it makes landfall before it dissipates north of Geraldton on Monday.
It will bring damaging wind gusts, heavy rainfall, and dangerous storm tides, and wind gusts of up to 200km/h.
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Originally published as Cyclone Zelia brings cool change to Central Australia as record almost broken for Alice Springs’ hottest February day
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