PRIORITY
TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 6
Issued at 11:10 am EST on Tuesday 23 January 2024
Headline:
Tropical cyclone impacts likely to begin for coastal and Island communities from Wednesday afternoon.

Areas Affected:
Warning Zone
None.

Watch Zone
Cairns to St Lawrence (not including Cairns), including Townsville, Mackay and the Whitsunday Islands .

Cancelled Zone
None.

Details of Tropical Low at 10:00 am AEST [9:30 am ACST]:
Intensity: Tropical Low, sustained winds near the centre of 65 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 95 kilometres per hour.

Location: within 35 kilometres of 16.3 degrees South 153.7 degrees East, estimated to be 800 kilometres east northeast of Townsville and 395 kilometres east of Willis Island.

Movement: slow moving.

A tropical low (05U) has been developing slowly in the central Coral Sea and is expected to become a tropical cyclone overnight Tuesday or early Wednesday. This system is forecast to track southwest, towards the Queensland coast, over the next few days as it intensifies. The system is likely to cross the Queensland coast late Thursday between Cardwell and Airlie Beach as a Category 3 system.

In the longer term, the system is likely to track inland and south as a deep tropical low bringing heavy to intense rain to parts of central, western and southern Queensland.