Tropical Cyclone Narelle traced a long path across the northern edge of Australia, bringing damaging winds and rain to areas already saturated with abundant precipitation. The system made separate landfalls in three different states and territories between March 20 and 23, 2026.
These satellite images show Narelle at about 2 p.m. local time (04:00 Universal Time) on March 19. By that time, the tropical cyclone was poised to make its first and most powerful landfall after intensifying over the Coral Sea. Sea surface temperatures along its path were 0.5–1.0 degrees Celsius above average, experts noted, which helped fuel its rapid intensification.
As it approached Queensland, the storm intensified to a category 5 on Australia’s tropical cyclone scale with maximum sustained winds up to 225 kilometers (140 miles) per hour—equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. However, because Narelle’s structure was compact by cyclone standards, the most damaging winds extended a relatively short distance from its core. Narelle reached the Cape York Peninsula, a sparsely populated region in northern Queensland, on the morning of March 20.
Narelle re-emerged over the Gulf of Carpentaria as a weakened cyclone, and wind speeds continued to decline as it neared the Northern Territory’s coast. The storm made its second landfall on the afternoon of March 21 with maximum sustained winds up to 148 kilometers (92 miles) per hour. It traversed the territory’s “Top End” until March 22.
More than 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain fell across a wide area of the Northern Territory during Narelle’s passage, according to news reports. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warned of minor to major flooding of several rivers. The storm arrived amid a severe wet season in the region that had already caused damaging floods and prompted evacuations.
After exiting the Northern Territory, th …