Latest update for Cyclone Kirrily

TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 22
Issued at 10:59 am EST on Thursday 25 January 2024
Headline:
Tropical Cyclone Kirrily to cross the coast near Townsville tonight. Gales now occurring over Whitsunday Islands, to extend to the mainland today.

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

Watch Zone
None.

Cancelled Zone
None.

Details of Tropical Cyclone Kirrily at 11:00 am AEST:
Intensity : Category 2, sustained winds near the centre of 95 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 130 kilometres per hour.

Location: within 35 kilometres of 18.3 degrees South 149.0 degrees East, estimated to be 260 kilometres east northeast of Townsville and 315 kilometres north of Mackay.

Movement: west southwest at 18 kilometres per hour.

Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is expected to continue strengthening as it tracks west southwest towards the Queensland coast. Kirrily will cross the Queensland coast tonight, in the vicinity of Townsville, as a Category 2 system then weaken on Friday as it moves inland.

From Friday, Kirrily is likely to track further inland as a tropical low, resulting in heavy to intense rain to parts of the northern interior and western Queensland.