This afternoon the Tropical Low up North has now officially been named Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.

TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 15
Issued at 4:49 pm EST on Wednesday 24 January 2024
Headline:
Impacts from Tropical Cyclone Kirrily likely to begin for coastal and island communities tonight and Thursday morning.

Areas Affected:
Warning Zone
Cardwell to Sarina, including Townsville, Mackay, Bowen, the Whitsunday Islands, and extending inland to Charters Towers.

Watch Zone
Innisfail to Cardwell.

Cancelled Zone
None.

Details of Tropical Cyclone Kirrily at 4:00 pm AEST:
Intensity: Category 1, sustained winds near the centre of 75 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 100 kilometres per hour.

Location: within 55 kilometres of 17.4 degrees South 152.4 degrees East, estimated to be 630 kilometres east northeast of Townsville and 530 kilometres northeast of Mackay.

Movement: slow moving.

Tropical Cyclone Kirrily has developed in the central Coral Sea, and is expected to continue strengthening as it tracks west southwest towards the Queensland coast. The system is likely to cross the Queensland coast Thursday night between Cardwell and Bowen as a Category 2 system.

In the longer term, the system is likely to track further inland as a tropical low, bringing heavy to intense rain to parts of the northern interior and western Queensland.