Severe weather warning in place as Tropical Cyclone Sean develops off Pilbara Coast.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Tropical cyclone Sean has developed off the Pilbara coast this morning and will
00:05continue to intensify as we move through the afternoon and evening hours and
00:09cyclone warnings are current. Firstly a quick look at what's happened overnight
00:13and this morning we can see that thunderstorm development around the low
00:16really intensified and solidified around the low-level circulation earlier this
00:21morning and we're getting some pretty nice structure on the radar as well
00:24showing us that we are looking at reaching cyclone strength activity and a
00:29number of our offshore obs are also gusting in excess of 100 kilometers an
00:33hour so that means that we have now got tropical cyclone Sean developing off
00:37the Pilbara coast and continuing to intensify as it moves southwest
00:41parallel to the Pilbara coast. So let's look at all of that right now. Cyclone
00:46warnings are current between Wim Creek and Ningaloo that does include the
00:50communities of Exmouth, Onslow and Karratha. Winds and rain already picking
00:55up through the Dampia and Karratha area likely to also increase later today into
00:59tonight through the Onslow and Exmouth area and also our offshore islands where
01:04we could see destructive winds develop later today and into tonight. So as we
01:09get into the overnight period we'll see it continue to strengthen into a
01:12category 2 system probably sitting somewhere off the Exmouth coast as we
01:16get into the early hours of Monday morning and then it'll continue to move
01:19further away thankfully but continue to intensify as we move into the Monday
01:24time frame and by Monday afternoon we could have a category 3 system sitting
01:28well offshore the WA coast but still could see some heavy rain and strong and
01:33gusty winds through parts of the Pilbara coast. So with those warnings current we
01:38can see this in more detail if we look at the rain and wind field. By later this
01:42afternoon category 1 Sean should be sitting a fair way off the Pilbara coast
01:46but you can see this really strong onshore wind and rain activity. We've
01:50seen falls of around 80 millimetres at Port Hedland and those kind of numbers
01:54will continue to track further down the coast as all this rain and wind offshore
01:58wraps around the system and impacts our coastal communities through the Pilbara
02:02coast today and to tonight and then we'll see as we move into Monday category
02:072 then category 3 system but note that wind field and rain and storms coming
02:11right down into the northwest Capes that's where we could see some damaging
02:15to possibly locally destructive winds particularly for our offshore islands
02:19but our coastal communities are likely to see widespread heavy rain that could
02:22lead to flash flooding as well as damaging winds which could bring down
02:25trees power lines and cause some minor property damage. But thankfully being a
02:29fast-moving system and moving away from the WA coast we're likely to see it
02:34conditions ease as we get into Monday night and Tuesday morning for much of
02:38the Pilbara but still looking at a fairly intense tropical cyclone but
02:41thankfully well offshore. Now all this rainfall we could see falls of 50 to 100
02:47millimetres along our coastal communities and particularly our
02:50offshore islands and as I mentioned that could lead to flash and riverine
02:54flooding and because of that we do have a few flood warnings current sorry flood
02:58watches I should say current for parts of the Pilbara coast and also up through
03:03that community. So to reiterate tropical cyclone warnings are current between
03:07Wim Creek and Ningaloo that does include Exmouth, Onslow and Karratha. Currently
03:12in category 1 system likely to strengthen into a category 2 and the
03:15category 3 as we move during Monday. So if you live in this area or know someone
03:19that does make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings
03:23via our website app and social media and listen to all and any advice from your
03:28local emergency services.