The cyclone has strengthened to a Category 3 with 143km/h wind gusts recorded in some areas.
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00:00 Hello from the Bureau.
00:02 Tropical Cyclone Kiralee crossed the Queensland coast at 10pm on Thursday evening and in this
00:07 video we'll take a look at what happened as it did so and how the now ex-tropical cyclone
00:13 is looking over the next couple of days.
00:15 We'll start by winding back to Thursday afternoon and we can see a Category 3 tropical cyclone
00:20 out over the coast.
00:21 We did have that upgrade from Category 2 to Category 3 at around midday on Thursday as
00:26 the winds around Kiralee strengthened.
00:29 These are some of the strongest gusts that were picked up on Bureau instruments on Thursday.
00:33 143km out over Flinders Reef to the northeast, the Whitsunday Islands were 115km/h wind gusts.
00:40 In Townsville, 93 was the strongest gust we picked up in the middle of the city but a
00:44 short ways east it was 107km/h and this wind was certainly enough to cause a bit of damage.
00:50 Widespread impact to trees, branches and power lines have left about 50,000 without power
00:55 this morning.
00:56 There was some damage reported on property and infrastructure but at the moment most
01:00 reports are just of minor damage so a little bit of good news there.
01:05 As we continue to watch Kiralee approach the coast, we will see that it went from a Category
01:09 3 back to a Category 2 as it weakened ever so slightly before reaching landfall.
01:14 In fact, let's zoom in and we can see the crossing point here.
01:17 It's about halfway between Townsville and Ingham on the Queensland coast and it did
01:22 reach the coastline at about 10pm on Thursday evening as a Category 2 tropical cyclone.
01:28 Then throughout the night we saw strong winds blow around the tropical cyclone, in particular
01:33 it was this northerly flow on the trailing flank of the tropical cyclone that blew really
01:37 powerfully all the way from Cairns down to about Mackay, leading a lot of people in the
01:42 area to say this one had a bit of a sting in the tail.
01:45 For a lot of places, the wind was strongest after the initial passage of the cyclone.
01:50 At 4am on Friday morning, we lost tropical cyclone status and it was reclassified as
01:55 a tropical low.
01:56 But that is still a significant weather system and throughout Friday morning this tropical
02:01 low has brought significant rainfall to interior parts of North Queensland, which has in turn
02:07 caused a response from the rivers.
02:08 Here's a look at how the flood warnings were looking at 9.30am on Friday morning, including
02:13 a major flood warning for the Etheridge River.
02:16 Now I've made sure to timestamp this scene here because these flood warnings are going
02:20 to change through the course of the day as more river falls on both these and new river
02:26 catchment areas.
02:28 Now let's turn to the future and see how things are expected to look over the next few days.
02:33 As the tropical low initially moves southwest, then starts to curve on a more northwestward
02:38 trajectory, bringing a broad swathe of rain through interior North Queensland and then
02:42 throughout the weekend to the northwest of the state.
02:45 Let's take a look at the rainfall accumulation here with a slightly new colour scale, really
02:50 highlighting those areas of heavier rain over the next few days and broadly following the
02:55 path of this ex-tropical cyclone we can see some significant tallies.
02:58 I've also got the forecast districts here and we can see that it's the northwest forecast
03:03 area, the Gulf Country forecast area and the northern goldfields and upper Flinders area
03:08 which are likely to get the most significant rain.
03:10 Widespread 100-150mm expected through these forecast regions with some places likely to
03:16 get over 200mm between now and the end of the weekend.
03:20 Also worth noting there will be a return of showery stormy conditions for parts of the
03:23 southeast with humid air that's been pumped in behind the tropical cyclone.
03:29 Finally with all of this rainfall here through Queensland through the weekend, potentially
03:33 pushing into northern territory early next week, we've got a broad flood watch in place.
03:38 These are all the rivers which may see further river rises in response to the wet weather
03:43 associated with the now ex-tropical cyclone.
03:45 So lots still to come across north Queensland, potentially parts of northern territory as
03:50 well as we do track this cyclone over the next couple of days.
03:54 That is the video for now but you can always get the latest info on the Bureau website
03:58 and as per usual in times of severe weather, follow all advice from your local emergency
04:02 services.
04:03 Thank you for watching.
04:04 [Music]