Cyclone Narelle: Geraldton now looking to experience category one cyclone as the system makes land crossing

Geraldton locals are counting down the minutes until Cyclone Narelle hits early on Saturday morning.

The Bureau of Meteorology is now predicting the city to be hit with a weakened system compared to towns further up the coast, with Geraldton likely to experience a tropical cyclone measured at a category one.

Jessica Lingard, BoM meteorologist, said as the system crossed the coast around midday on Friday somewhere between Coral Bay and Cape Cuvier, it would quickly weaken as it travelled south.

“Places like Denham and Shark Bay can potentially expect category two strength winds, and the folks down the coast at Kalbarri and Geraldton could be looking at category one strength winds overnight and into tomorrow morning,” she said.

“We should see it downgraded to a tropical low by 8am tomorrow morning.”

The dreary wet weather currently impacting Geraldton was also noted by Ms Lingard to be unrelated to Cyclone Narelle — and was instead a front of cool air, wind and precipitation caused by a mid-level trough.

However, Ms Lingard said as Narelle swirled closer to Geraldton, there would likely be nothing too extreme in terms of rainfall, with levels likely to be in the lower double digits.

Overnight and Friday morning, Exmouth experienced winds between 175km/h to 200km/h as the town sat on the edge of the eye wall.

Ms Lingard said areas sitting within the eye of the system would experience calmer winds and perhaps patches of blue skies, before experiencing the other side of the eye wall.

“It’s going to be a windy night for Geraldton, because the worst of the winds are going to be coming through,” Ms Lingard said.

All primary and high schools in Geraldton are closed today and will remain so until it is safe for students to return.

The City of Greater Geraldton opened an evacuation centre from 10am Friday for anyone who felt unsafe in their home and on their properties.

The evacuation centre can be found at the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Stadium on Eighth Street in Wonthella.

The city asked anyone seeking shelter at the centre to bring bedding, hygiene products, snacks and food, as well as essential items like medications and identification.

From 5pm Friday, all unsealed rural roads within Greater Geraldton and the Mullewa District will close to all traffic until further notice, the city said.

From 6pm Friday, Brand Highway northbound from Gingin Brook Road, Gingin to Geraldton will be closed, as well as Geraldton–Mount Magnet Road westbound from Great Northern Highway to Geraldton.

It is important to stay up to date with emergency alerts from BoM and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

Rental scooters are currently unavailable in Geraldton as Beam has stored their fleet safely out of the winds.

“Beam has been closely monitoring the movement of Cyclone Narelle and has relocated our fleet in Geraldton to our warehouse over the past two days as part of our safety procedures,” a Beam spokesperson said.

“Users have been notified of the temporary fleet removal via the rider app, and devices will be redeployed once it is safe to do so.”

This weather update was subject to change from time of reporting.