Australia Braces for Life-Threatening Floods as Six Storms Brew

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Australia Braces for Life-Threatening Floods as Six Storms Brew

Six storms round Australia and its territories are anticipated to strengthen within the coming days, with one system more likely to set off life-threatening flooding within the nation’s north and three others with no less than a average likelihood to kind into tropical cyclones by Monday.

One of many tropical lows — whereas unlikely to develop right into a cyclone — is predicted to deliver intense, gale-force winds and doubtlessly life-threatening flooding alongside components of Queensland’s coast from Friday night into the weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The bureau has not flagged that any of the opposite tropical lows, even these anticipated to turn out to be tropical cyclones, are anticipated to trigger onshore harm. A few of the lows are forecast to impression Christmas Island and Cocos Islands, to the northwest of the Australian mainland.

Cyclones and storms can impression crops in addition to mining and vitality infrastructure, with a tropical system off Australia’s northwest coast earlier this month damaging the nation’s busiest iron ore port and delaying Rio Tinto Group’s shipments of the steelmaking materials.

Likelihood of Tropical Cyclone by Feb. 3
Tropical Low 12U 5%, low
Tropical Low 13U <5%, very low
Tropical Low 14U 30%, average
Tropical Low 15U 55%, excessive
Tropical Low 16U 40%, average
Tropical Low 17U 5%, low
Source: Bureau of Meteorology

Hotter ocean temperatures are anticipated to extend the variety of extreme tropical cyclones within the nation earlier than the season ends in April. That warning comes as local weather change continues to supercharge excessive climate occasions around the globe, with 2024 being the most well liked 12 months on report.

Queensland Braces

The storm in Queensland might see half-a-meter of rain fall in a 24-hour interval in coastal areas within the north of the state between Friday afternoon and the weekend, in response to the bureau. River flooding can be anticipated to extend over the weekend and proceed into subsequent week, it said.

“That’s greater than water simply transferring over roads and footpaths, presumably coming into your property,” mentioned meteorologist Miriam Bradbury in a update published to the bureau’s X account. “That’s flooding that happens in a short time and will pose a sudden a big threat to your life and private security,” she mentioned, including that harm to property and crops is probably going.

The affected area is a well-liked vacationer vacation spot, with shut proximity to the Nice Barrier Reef. It additionally accounts for giant swaths of the state’s sugarcane rising area, most of which is exported.

Final 12 months, a cyclone in the same area noticed some farms lose greater than half their sugarcane crops, denting the nation’s general manufacturing. There have been eight cyclones that fashioned in the 2023-24 season, with 4 making landfall.

{Photograph}: Boats are docked by the waterfront as storm clouds brew overhead in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020. Photograph credit score: Chris Crerar/Bloomberg

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

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Flood
Windstorm
Australia

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