Cyclone Narelle LIVE updates: Warnings issued for Queensland coastline as category 4 storm approaches

18 Mar 2026, 21:28 · WAtoday

6.05am

Cyclone could hit category 5 today, bureau says

The weather bureau has predicted Cyclone Narelle will continue to intensify across today into a category 5 system, but expect it will weaken slightly as it crosses the coast tomorrow.

Senior meteorologist Jonathan How said the storm was expected to hit the coastline on Friday as a category 4 storm.

The expected path Cyclone Narelle will take across Far North Queensland, as predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday morning.

“We’re now expecting it to reach category 5 later today, and it will remain that way tomorrow morning.

“It’s one of those situations where you can’t rule out category 5 crossing as well, so that will be one of the watch points,” How said.

The system was barrelling towards the coastline about 20km/h shortly before 8am today, four times the typical speed of a cyclone.

How said if Cyclone Narelle continued to gain speed there was a chance it would not reach category 5, but he added “all models pointed to the system upgrading”.

At the centre of the storm, the weather bureau recorded winds of up to 260km/h as it sat about 600 kilometres off the Far North Queensland coast.