Tropical Cyclone Zelia intensified to the equivalent of a hurricane\/typhoon near the coast of Western Australia early on Wednesday.\u00a0 At 4:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Zelia was located at latitude 19.1\u00b0S and longitude 118.6\u00b0E which put the center about 80 miles (130 km) north of Port Hedland, Australia.\u00a0 Zelia was moving toward the south-southwest at 3 m.p.h. (5 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 90 m.p.h. (145 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 978 mb.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Zelia exhibited signs of rapid intensification early on Wednesday.\u00a0 The inner end of a rainband wrapped around the center of Zelia’s circulation.\u00a0 A small eye appeared to be forming at the center of Tropical Cyclone Zelia.\u00a0 A ring of thunderstorms surrounded the center of Zelia and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0 Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the core of Tropical Cyclone Zelia.\u00a0 Storms near the core generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away from the tropical cyclone.\u00a0 The removal of mass caused the surface pressure to decrease.<\/p>\n
The circulation around Tropical Cyclone Zelia was symmetrical.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane\/typhoon force extended out 40 miles (65 km) from the center of Zelia’s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 115 miles (185 km) from the center of Tropical Cyclone Zelia.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Zelia will move through an environment favorable for intensification during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Zelia will move over water where where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move under the middle part of an upper level ridge that extends from Australia to the South Indian Ocean.\u00a0 The upper level winds are weak near the middle of the middle of the ridge and there will be little vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Zelia will intensify during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Zelia could intensify rapidly at times.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Zelis could strengthen to the equivalent of a major hurricane.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Zelia will move around the northwestern side of a high pressure system over Australia.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Zelia slowly toward the west-southwest during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Tropical Cyclone will move closer to the coast of Western Australia. Zelia could approach the coast between De Grey and Dampier in 36 hours.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Zelia will bring strong winds and heavy rain to parts of Western Australia.<\/p>\n
A Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Bidyadanga to Dampier.\u00a0 The Warning includes Port Hedland, Karratha, De Grey, and Wallal Downs.\u00a0 The Warning extends inland to Marble Bar.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A Watch is in effect for the portion of the coast from Dampier to Mardie.\u00a0 The Warning extends inland to Nullagine.<\/span><\/p>\n Heavy rain is likely to cause floods in some locations.<\/p>\n A Flood Warning is in effect for the De Grey River.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Flood Watches are in effect for the Pilbara coastal Rivers, the Onslow coast, the Fortescue River, the Ashburton River, and parts of the Sandy Desert.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Elsewhere over the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Vince made a transition to an extratropical cyclone and Tropical Cyclone Taliah continued to move farther away from the Cocos Islands.<\/p>\n At 4:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Taliah was located at latitude 18.2\u00b0S and longitude 90.3\u00b0E which put the center about 565 miles (915 km) south-southwest of the Cocos Islands.\u00a0 Taliah was moving toward the southwest at 15 m.p.h. (24 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 90 m.p.h. (145 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 984 mb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tropical Cyclone Zelia intensified to the equivalent of a hurricane\/typhoon near the coast of Western Australia early on Wednesday.\u00a0 At 4:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Zelia was located at latitude 19.1\u00b0S and longitude 118.6\u00b0E which put the center about 80 miles (130 km) north of Port Hedland, Australia.\u00a0 Zelia was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,48,2],"tags":[973,672,3852,3851,1896,3838,1467,1903,1934,3224,1927,1935,979,936,3853,673,3843,3842,3849,1897,94,3850],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21987,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21986\/revisions\/21987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}