Where Is Cyclone Narelle Now — A Storm That Struck Three Coasts and Changed the Weather Map

Under a sky still streaked with salt and cloud, residents who felt the first lashings in far north Queensland now ask where is cyclone narelle now as the system completes a rare circuit across the continent. The storm began as a high-end category four that pummelled communities in the Coral Sea before moving inland and later reaching the Northern Territory as a category three, and then continuing westward toward the coast of Western Australia.

Where Is Cyclone Narelle Now?

In plain terms, the system’s journey has taken it from the Coral Sea across northern Australia and onward to the Indian Ocean side of the continent, a sweep that has already passed over far north Queensland and the Northern Territory and then crossed the Western Australian coast. Observers note the storm has travelled more than 5, 500km (3, 400 miles) by the time it approaches Perth, likely passing east of the capital city.

Why was Narelle’s path described as ‘very unusual’?

The route Narelle followed stands out in the historical record. It is only the third storm system in recorded history to make landfall in three Australian jurisdictions and the first in more than 20 years to do so. The last storms to hit three states and territories were Cyclone Ingrid and Cyclone Steve. Dr Joseph Christensen, a historian at the University of Western Australia who studies cyclones and extreme weather in WA, said the path that Cyclone Narelle has taken “is very unusual, and we do – with any certainty – [only] know of one or two precursors. ”

That unusual behaviour shows in the direction of movement. Western Australian cyclones typically form in the Timor Sea and move broadly southeast. Narelle took almost the opposite track, moving from east to west. Dr Milton Speer, a fellow at the University of Technology Sydney and former Bureau of Meteorology forecaster, described how such systems can behave when caught by larger circulation patterns: “Instead of going east in the tropical easterly trade winds in the monsoon trough, they get captured by the mid-latitude westerly winds. They do take some time to curl around and head south, but when they do get captured they usually move a bit quicker. ” He added that Narelle would be pushed east by “an upper-level low pressure trough in the westerlies approaching WA. ”

What role did ocean temperatures and climate play?

Scientists examining the storm’s early life point to unusually warm ocean conditions as a key factor. Formation and intensification of cyclones require sea surface temperatures above 26. 5C alongside favourable atmospheric conditions; in the Coral Sea where Narelle began, ocean temperatures had reached record highs in the weeks before the storm. Andrew Watkins, an adjunct professor at Monash University and a councillor with the Climate Council, highlighted the scale of that warming: “The Coral Sea has just recorded its hottest December, hottest February, hottest summer, hottest calendar year and even the hottest financial year. ”

Those conditions are consistent with the view that global heating likely fuelled Narelle’s early formation and intensification. At the same time, experts stress limits to what the historical record can tell us: reliable meteorological data on cyclones in Australia only began in the 1970s, a constraint Dr Christensen notes when assessing how often such looping, multi-coastal tracks have occurred in the past.

Voices from meteorology and climate science are now central to the response: forecasters trained at the Bureau of Meteorology and researchers at universities are piecing together the atmospheric and oceanic drivers, while historians and climate scientists frame the event in a longer record. That interplay of observation, analysis and context is the primary means by which communities and authorities understand what has happened and prepare for what might follow.

Back in the towns that felt Narelle’s first winds, people are left with a changed landscape and new questions about how often such storms can loop across the continent. The storm’s movement — from a high-end category four in the Coral Sea to a category three on the way through the Northern Territory and onward toward Western Australia — makes the immediate answer to where is cyclone narelle now a measure of distance and momentum: it is completing an east-to-west passage that has already touched three jurisdictions and that experts call very unusual. The scene that opened this story remains unsettled, its final chapters written by wind, ocean heat and the teams of scientists tracking the storm’s next moves.