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Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina on the northwest Top End coast is bringing gales & heavy rain. Showers & storms over SW WA, the interior, central SA, NSW & Qld are linked with low pressure & an unstable airmass. Showers about western Vic & the east coast in moist onshore winds.
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Today, 6:22AM UTC
Fina to pass near Darwin as severe tropical cyclone on Saturday night
Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina will pass near Darwin on Saturday night into Sunday morning, lashing the city and surrounding areas of the northwest Top End with powerful winds, heavy rain and flooding. Fina barrelled over the Cobourg Peninsula on Friday night as a category two system, before strengthening into a category three severe tropical cyclone over the warm Van Diemen Gulf on Saturday morning. This is the first severe tropical cyclone to form in the Australian region during November for 20 years. Video: Composite radar and satellite images showing Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina crossing the Van Diemen Gulf on Saturday. Source: Weatherzone. By 3:30pm ACST on Saturday, Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina was sitting near the south coast of Melville Island, roughly 60 km north of Darwin, with wind gusts reaching around 205 km/h near its core. A few weather stations in the northwest Top End registered wind gusts above 100 km/h on Saturday, including: 104 km/h at Gunn Point shortly before 2:30pm 104 km/h at McCluer Island just before 2pm 102 km/h at Point Stuart at 8:22am Fina has already dumped more than 200 mm of rain over parts of the northern Top End in the last couple of days. Murganella Airstrip picked up 213 mm in the 24 hours to 9am ACST on Saturday, while Point Stuart saw 208 mm in the 27 hours ending at 3pm on Saturday. Impressively, Gunn Point received more than 110 mm in four hours on Saturday afternoon. While Darwin has so far escaped the worst weather from Fina, conditions are expected to rapidly deteriorate as the tropical cyclone gets closer to the city on Saturday afternoon and evening, possibly persisting into Sunday morning. Darwin and surrounding areas could see wind gusts reaching about 120 to 155 km/h on Saturday night. Wind will initially build from the south and southeast, before turning more easterly and then northeasterly as the eye of Fina passes Darwin. These changing wind directions can be dangerous because they expose infrastructure and vegetation to powerful winds from a range of angles. Rainfall rates in the Darwin region could reach 100 to 300mm in 24 hours by Sunday morning, with isolated falls possibly reaching around 500 mm over parts of the northwest Top End. Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the 48 hours ending at 9:30pm ACST on Sunday, according to the ECMWF-HRES model. After passing by Darwin, Fina is expected to move over the southern Timor Sea on Sunday into Monday while maintaining severe tropical cyclone intensity, possibly strengthening into a category four system. At this stage, Fina should weaken from Monday into Tuesday as it approaches WA’s north Kimberley coast.
21 Nov 2025, 9:42PM UTC
Tropical Cyclone Fina has made initial landfall
Tropical Cyclone Fina crossed the Cobourg Peninsula overnight as a Category 2 system and is now over the Van Diemen Gulf, heading southwest and strengthening. As of 7.33am (ACST), Fina was a Category 3 Cyclone. Image: Satellite and radar animation showing the eye of Fina crossing the Cobourg Peninsula late Friday evening. The nearest weather station to the passing system was Croker Island, a good 30 km or so to the east, which recorded wind gusts of 107km/h and mean wind speeds of 76km/h. In that same location, 189mm of rain fell in the 24 hours to 9am on Fri 21st with another 95mm falling from 9am Friday to 7.30am Saturday. Murganella Airstrip, even further to the east, has picked up 213mm in the 22.5 hours to 7.30am Saturday, most of that falling since 9pm as the cyclone crossed to the west. Fina has now moved back over the open water of the Van Diemen Gulf between the mainland NT and the Tiwi Islands, likely bringing gusts of 140km/h to eastern Melville Island on Saturday morning, expected to increase to 170-190km/h over the coming few hours. Fina is still forecast to pass very close to Darwin on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday morning. Gusts of well over 130km/h are possible for the city, starting as southeasterlies, and turning to northeasterlies with the passage of the system. Heavy rain of 150-300mm in less than 24 hours is also likely, with isolated heavier falls of up to 500mm. Check the latest forecasts for Darwin and Tropical Cyclone Fina. Darwin is no stranger to tropical cyclones, and its strong infrastructure is vastly different from the flimsy buildings that caved under Tropical Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Nevertheless, Fina is a significant weather system, and residents are advised to prepare accordingly, as per the BoM and Northern Territory Emergency Services guidelines, summarised in the latest Tropical Cyclone Advice. Flying debris as well as falling powerlines and trees are some of the potential hazards. Image: Current forecast track map for Tropical Cyclone Fina as of 7.33am NT time Saturday 22nd. Source: Bureau of Meteorology Image: Forecast wind gusts from the ECMWF model for 10.30pm local time Saturday night overlaid with Fina's forecast track according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The ECMWF model has the cyclone deviating slightly southward from the forecast track.
21 Nov 2025, 5:53AM UTC
How a tropical cyclone near Darwin will cause 47C heat over Australia next week
The downstream influence of Tropical Cyclone Fina will cause intense heat to build over central Australia this weekend and early next week, with temperatures predicted to reach 46 to 47°C in at least two states. While most of November has been unusually cool for large areas of Australia, a burst of late-spring heat is about to develop over the country’s interior. Tropical Cyclone Fina, which is currently bearing down on the NT’s Top End coast, is drawing vast amounts of heat from the Timor Sea and transporting it into higher levels of the atmosphere. Image: Tropical Cyclone Fina near the NT's Top End on Friday. Over the coming days, this upper-level air will move further south before descending over the Australian continent under the influence of an upper-level high pressure system. One important point to note about the air that Fina is ejecting into the upper-atmosphere this week is that while it has lost a lot of the moisture it began with, it has retained its potential temperature. This means the air will warm up as it descends towards the ground over central Australia this weekend and early next week, a process called adiabatic warming. The two maps below show the maximum temperature forecasts for today (Friday) and Monday next week, highlighting how much warming is going to occur over the next four days. Image: Forecast maximum temperatures on Friday, November 21, 2025. Image: Forecast maximum temperatures on Monday, November 24, 2025. Temperatures on Sunday and Monday are forecast to reach 45 to 46°C in SA and 47°C in southwest Qld. Temperatures should also hit the low to mid 40s in northwest NSW and the southern NT on these days. These temperatures aren’t unprecedented for central Australia in late spring, but they may get within a degree or two of November heat records. Heatwave warnings will be issued for numerous states and territories over the coming days in response to the rapid onset of this intense heat.