Latest update.. SEWS to be used in media release as of now.

Transmitters serving the area between Ingham and Bowen including Townsville and Ayr are requested to USE the Standard Emergency Warning Signal before broadcasting the following warning.

TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 26
Issued at 2:53 pm EST on Thursday 25 January 2024
Headline:
Severe 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 Severe Tropical Cyclone Kirrily at 3:00 pm AEST:
Intensity: Category 3, sustained winds near the centre of 120 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 165 kilometres per hour.

Location: within 30 kilometres of 18.5 degrees South 148.0 degrees East, estimated to be 155 kilometres east northeast of Townsville and 320 kilometres north northwest of Mackay.

Movement: west southwest at 22 kilometres per hour.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is expected to track west southwest towards the Queensland coast. Kirrily will cross the Queensland coast tonight, in the vicinity of Townsville, as a Category 3 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.