{"id":23936,"date":"2026-01-23T23:15:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/?p=23936"},"modified":"2026-01-23T23:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:15:40","slug":"tropical-cyclone-luana-approaches-western-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/?p=23936","title":{"rendered":"Tropical Cyclone Luana Approaches Western Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tropical Cyclone Luana was approaching the coast of Western Australia on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Cyclone Luana was located at latitude 16.3\u00b0S and longitude 121.7\u00b0E which put the center about 140 miles (230 km) north-northwest of Broome, Australia.\u00a0 Luana was moving toward the southeast at 14 m.p.h. (22 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 994 mb.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a Warning for the portion of the coast from Broome to Kuri Bay.\u00a0 The Warning included Derby.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>A Watch was in effect for the portion of the coast from Bidyadanga to Broome.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tropical Cyclone Luana strengthened on Friday as it moved closer to the coast of Western Australia.\u00a0 More thunderstorms formed near the center of Luana&#8217;s circulation.\u00a0 More thunderstorms developed in bands revolving around the center of Tropical Cyclone Luana.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Luana 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<p>The distribution of wind speeds in Tropical Cyclone Luana was asymmetrical.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 115 miles (185 km) in the northeastern quadrant of Luana&#8217;s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out only 60 miles (95 km) in the other parts of Tropical Cyclone Luana.<\/p>\n<p>Tropical Cyclone Luana will move through an environment favorable for intensification during the next few hours.\u00a0 Luana will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0\u00a0 It will move under the middle part of an upper level ridge that is northwest of Australia.\u00a0\u00a0 The upper level winds are weak in the middle of the ridge and there will be little vertical wind shear.\u00a0\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Luana will Intensify during the next few hours.<\/p>\n<p>Tropical Cyclone Luana Will move around the northwestern part of a high pressure system over Australia.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Luana toward the southeast during the next 24 hours. \u00a0 On its anticipated track, Tropical Cyclone Luana will make landfall on the coast of Western Australia between Beagle Bay and Cape Leveque in a few hours.<\/p>\n<p>Tropical Cyclone Luana will bring strong winds and heavy rain to the portion of Western Australia between Broome and Kuri Bay.\u00a0 Heavy rain could cause flash floods in some locations.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Flood Watches are in effect for the Northwest Kimberley and Western Sandy Desert regions.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tropical Cyclone Luana could also cause a storm surge of up to 7 feet (2 meters) along the coast of Western Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tropical Cyclone Luana was approaching the coast of Western Australia on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Cyclone Luana was located at latitude 16.3\u00b0S and longitude 121.7\u00b0E which put the center about 140 miles (230 km) north-northwest of Broome, Australia.\u00a0 Luana was moving toward the southeast at 14 m.p.h. [&hellip;]<\/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":[672,1912,2859,933,1892,2858,4069,1895,4089,936,673,4088,94],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936"}],"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=23936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23937,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936\/revisions\/23937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}