Weather News

Final wet season splash coming to Darwin

Rob Sharpe, Tuesday April 22, 2014 - 12:41 AEST

Darwin will finish off its above average wet season with another drenching as a potential cyclone will come near.

A tropical low has formed in the Arafura Sea, well to the north of the Northern Territory. It is expected to remain weak as it moves south in the next couple of days.

On Wednesday the low will approach the Top End with a region of low pressure ahead of the system producing isolated showers and storms.

Showers and storms will be a little more widespread on Thursday as the system comes closer and potentially intensifies. There is a chance that it will become a tropical cyclone named Kate.

On Friday the system could be at its closest to the NT Top End, leading to areas of rain with isolated thunderstorms mixed in. There should also be some gusty northeasterly winds, particularly about the Tiwi Islands and coastal areas.

There is still some uncertainty regarding the movement of this low, but there are indications that the system will start tracking in a more westerly direction from Saturday and into next week. Saturday could be particularly wet in Darwin with moist northeasterly winds.

With the system likely to track west, showers and storms will gradually ease across the NT, but the weakening northeasterly flow will still bring in plenty of moisture. The northern WA coastline could see some significant rains from this potential cyclone, depending on its track and intensity.

So far in the wet season Darwin has seen 1840mm, more than 150mm above the long term average. By the end of the month it should move into the top 15 wet seasons of the last 74 years as it approaches 2000mm. However this is still well short of the record breaking wet season of 2010/11 with 2918mm.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2014

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro surf forecast

07:00 AEST After an emotional mid-year cut at the Margaret River Pro surf competition in Western Australia last week, surfers that fell below the cut line, along with up-and-coming talent, will be battling it out on the Gold Coast from this weekend onwards. The first stop on the Challenger Series (the lesser format of the Championship Tour) will take place along the Gold Coast’s premier surf point breaks, starting this morning and running to Saturday May 4th.