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Tropical Cyclone Narelle Targets Australia’s Northern Territory

Friday, March 20, 2026 at 8:22 PM

Tropical Cyclone Narelle is moving toward Australia's Northern Territory after battering Queensland's northeast coast Friday. The Category 2 storm is expected to strengthen with winds up to 115 mph as it tracks westward across the Gulf of Carpentaria.

SYDNEY, March 21 – Australia’s Northern Territory is preparing for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Narelle on Saturday, following the storm’s destructive passage through the country’s northeastern coastline a day earlier, which left communities dealing with damaging winds, torrential rainfall and widespread electrical outages.

The weather system, currently classified as a Category 2 cyclone as it travels westward across the Gulf of Carpentaria, is projected to strike the territory’s isolated eastern regions during the late Saturday hours, according to Australia’s meteorological service.

“Narelle is forecast to strengthen during Saturday as it tracks quickly westwards,” officials from the weather bureau stated, predicting devastating wind speeds reaching 185 kilometers per hour (115 miles per hour).

The previous day saw Narelle strike Queensland state as a powerful Category 4 storm – just one level below maximum intensity – making landfall approximately 550 kilometers (340 miles) north of Cairns, the primary access point for visitors to the renowned Great Barrier Reef. Meteorologists subsequently reduced the storm’s classification as it progressed over land.

This latest cyclone follows Tropical Cyclone Fina’s impact on the Northern Territory last November and brings back difficult recollections of the devastating Cyclone Tracy, which destroyed most of Darwin, the region’s capital city, on Christmas Day in 1974. That historic storm claimed 66 lives and remains among Australia’s most catastrophic natural disasters.

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