Tropical Cyclone Zelia rapidly intensified to the equivalent of a major hurricane near the coast of Western Australia on Wednesday.\u00a0 At 10:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Zelia was located at latitude 19.1\u00b0S and longitude 118.1\u00b0E which put the center about 80 miles (130 km) north-northwest of Port Hedland, Australia.\u00a0 Zelia was nearly stationary.\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 140 m.p.h. (225 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 165 m.p.h. (265 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 940 mb.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Zelia rapidly intensified to the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale on Thursday.\u00a0 A small circular eye with a diameter of 12 miles (19 km) formed at the center of Zelia’s circulation.\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 strong upper level divergence that pumped large quantities of mass away from the tropical cyclone.\u00a0 The removal of large amounts of mass caused the surface pressure to decrease rapidly.<\/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\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 115 miles (185 km) from the center of Tropical Cyclone Zelia.<\/p>\n
The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Tropical Cyclone Zelia was 28.3.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) was 14.1 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) was 42.4.<\/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 continue to intensify during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Zelia could intensify rapidly at times.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Zelis could strengthen to the equivalent of Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.<\/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 southwest during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Tropical Cyclone will move closer to the coast of Western Australia.\u00a0 Zelia could approach the coast between Port Hedland 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A Watch is in effect for the portion of the coast from Dampier to Mardie.\u00a0 The Watch extends inland to Nullagine and Tom Price.<\/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.<\/strong><\/span><\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tropical Cyclone Zelia rapidly intensified to the equivalent of a major hurricane near the coast of Western Australia on Wednesday.\u00a0 At 10:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Zelia was located at latitude 19.1\u00b0S and longitude 118.1\u00b0E which put the center about 80 miles (130 km) north-northwest of Port Hedland, Australia.\u00a0 Zelia […]<\/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":[672,3852,2859,1928,1896,3838,650,1467,3224,1927,1935,979,936,673,1937,3849,1897,94,3850],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21990"}],"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=21990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21991,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21990\/revisions\/21991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}