Australian Weather

27 Mar 2026, 12:59AM UTC

The northwest coast of Western Australia is feeling the full force of Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle as the system’s very destructive core skirts along the coast. At 8 am AWST on Friday, Narelle was a category 4 tropical cyclone located about 70 km southwest of Exmouth, with wind speeds near its core averaging 175 km/h and gusts to 250 km/h. Powerful winds, flooding rain and large storm surge Numerous weather stations along the Pilbara coast registered destructive (above 125 km/h) to very destructive (above 165 km/h) wind gusts on Friday morning, including: 200 km/h at Learmonth 163 km/h at Thevenard Island 150 km/h at Onslow Airport 148 km/h at Barrow Island Image: Enhanced infrared satellite image showing Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle near WA’s North West Cape on Friday. Source: Weatherzone. Narelle is also causing heavy rain and flooding. During the 24 hours to 9 am AWST on Friday, Barrow Island and Learmonth both received more than 200 mm, while Onslow Airport and Roebourne received more than 100 mm. Large waves, ferocious onshore winds and Narelle’s low pressure produced a large storm surge, which reached around 3 metres above the normal tide level at Exmouth on Friday morning. Severe weather spreading south Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle will move towards the south on Friday, passing close to the North West Cape before moving over the western Gascoyne district. While the system will weaken as it tracks south, it is expected to be a category 4 or 3 system as it crosses the coast and moves over land into Friday afternoon and evening. Narelle’s southward track will cause its severe impacts, including ferocious winds, heavy rain and storm surge, to spread further south across the western Pilbara and Gascoyne districts on Friday. The system will weaken further as it tracks inland across the Central Wheatbelt on Saturday, causing rain to spread across the WA’s South West Land Division and western Goldfields district. Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the 48 hours ending at 8pm AWST on Saturday, March 29, 2026. Source: Weatherzone. Landfall in three states and/or territories Tropical Cyclone Narelle is only the third system since 1980 to make landfall in three Australian states and/or territories. Narelle’s first coastal crossing was in northern Queensland on March 20. It then crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria and made a second landfall over the eastern Top End of the Northern Territory early on March 22. Its third landfall today over WA makes it the first system since Tropical Cyclone Ingrid in 2005 to make landfall in three Australian states and/or territories as a tropical cyclone. The only other system to do this in records since 1980 was Steve in 2000.

26 Mar 2026, 9:40PM UTC

A deepening low pressure system over the Tasman Sea is causing severe weather in parts of Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT, with damaging winds, heavy rain, thunderstorms, large waves and highland snow. Severe storms in NSW on Thursday A cold front passing over southeastern Australia on Thursday caused rain and storms to spread over NSW. Behind this front, cold air and blustery southerly winds caused temperatures to plummet in Vic and Tas. Thursday’s thunderstorms caused wind gusts of up to 115 km/h at Dubbo and above 90 km/h at Mudgee, Coonamble and Cobar during the afternoon. As the storms move further east late in the day, they dropped heavy rain and large hail in parts of Sydney. These storms also produced a large amount of lightning. Weatherzone’s Total Lightning Network detected more than 330,000 lightning pulses within a 400 km radius of Oberon during the 12 hours ending at 8 pm AEDT on Thursday. Image: The red symbols show lightning pulses detected between 8 am and 8 pm AEDT on Thursday, March 26, 2026. Source: Weatherzone. More severe weather on Friday Severe weather will continue to batter southeastern Australia on Friday as a low pressure system deepens rapidly over the western Tasman Sea. Rain and flooding Rain will continue to soak areas from southern Vic up to central NSW on Friday. The heaviest falls are expected to occur in Vic’s East Gippsland district, where rain rates could reach 60 to 80 mm in six hours, which is enough to cause flash flooding. Some of Friday’s precipitation will fall as snow in elevated areas of northeast Vic and southeast NSW. Wind and waves The intensifying low will cause powerful southerly winds over exposed areas of southeastern Australia on Friday. Severe weather warnings have been issued for damaging winds in parts of central and eastern Vic and southeast and central NSW, including parts of the ACT. The ferocious winds will create huge waves that will first build to the east of the Bass Strait on Friday morning before spreading up the NSW coastline on Friday and Saturday. This surge of southerly swell will cause waves of 4 to 8 metres along the NSW coast, with damaging surf expected to cause coastal erosion from the Vic border up to about Seal Rocks. Image: Forecast significant wave height at 1am AEDT on Saturday. Source: Weatherzone. After battering southeastern Australia on Friday, the low pressure system will move out over the Tasman Sea on Saturday. This will allow rain and wind to ease on Saturday as the low moves further offshore, with swell easing from Sunday.