Australia – Tropical Cyclone Kelvin Causes Flooding in Western Australia

Tropical Cyclone Kelvin made landfall on the coast of Western Australia near Anna Plains Station early on 18 February, 2018.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said the cyclone brought winds of over 150 km/h. Unconfirmed rainfall totals suggest 371 mm of rain fell in 24 hours at Broome Airport on 17 February, with a further 96 mm falling the next day.

Many northern areas of the state are still saturated after record rain brought by a tropical low in late January. Broome recorded 412.2 mm in 24 hours between 29 and 30 January, its second wettest day on record behind the 476.6 mm set in 1997.

Further heavy rainfall from Cyclone Kelvin since 17 February has resulted in flooding, in particular parts of the Great Northern Highway near Port Hedland have been cut-off by flood water.

The road transport authority of the state government, Mainroads WA said:

“Great Northern Highway has been closed to the east and south of Broome as a result of heavy rain and flooding associated with Tropical Cyclone Kelvin.

The highway is closed from Roebuck Roadhouse east to the Willare Roadhouse, and from Port Hedland north to Roebuck near the Broome Highway turn-off.

The section from Sandfire north to Roebuck could be closed for up to a fortnight.

We’ll know more in a few days once it stops raining and flood levels fall sufficiently. Inspections will be carried out and necessary repairs to allow the safe reopening.”

See a full list of closed roads in WA here.

Cyclone Kelvin has weakened to a tropical low, with some heavy rain and flooding still likely. This combined with storms affecting southern areas of the state meant that, as of 19 February, Emergency WA had 5 flood warnings in place in areas stretching from North Kimberly and Pilabra to Midwest-Gascoyne, Goldfields-Midlands and Great Southern districts.

Breaking NewsWestern Australia