Strong wind and heavy rain battered Far North Queensland after Cyclone Narelle made landfall about 7am today as a category 4 storm. 

The cyclone has been downgraded to category 3 as it moves west over central Cape York Peninsula towards the NT, which it is expected to hit tomorrow. The NT town of Katherine, which recently suffered its worst flood in years, faces another deluge this weekend from Narelle.

“It was a category 4 system on arrival northeast of Coen and has been bringing significant rainfall ever since,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Angus Hines said in update before midday. 

“In the last hour or so, that category 4 system has become a category 3 tropical cyclone … a category 3 [storm] is still a severe tropical cyclone and will still bring some significant weather impacts onto north Queensland.”

Wenlock River, to the north of the crossing point, received 24-hour rainfall totalling about 200mm, while other areas had more than 100mm over a six-hour period.

The bureau says Narelle brought wind gusts of 185km/h as it moved west across Cape York Peninsula this afternoon.

“It does look like we’ll see significant further accumulations through the remainder of the day ... as the system sweeps through,” meteorologist Mr Hines said. 

“Some of the other observations we’ve seen have been wind gusts over 100km/h now at Lockhart River, likely much stronger than that near the core of the tropical cyclone.”

The storm caused coastal inundation as far south as Cairns.

“Today is the key day for the far north of Queensland,” Mr Hines said. “Throughout Friday, this weather system … will move quite swiftly, so in less than a day it will cross the entire width of the peninsula.”

He says Narelle is expected to weaken to category 2 as it moves towards the NT, before returning to category 3.

“It will take about a day, 24 hours to cross the Gulf of Carpentaria, meaning by the very end of the day Saturday, this weather system will be sitting near the east coast of the top end of the Northern Territory, likely just to the north of Groote Eylandt.”

The bureau has activated a cyclone watch for Nhulunbuy to Port McArthur, including the NT communities of Borroloola, Numbulwar, Alyangula, Ngukurr, Gapuwiyak and Bulman. 

“We could see rainfall in excess of 100mm to 200mm along the path of that tropical cyclone … including the potential for renewed major flooding around Katherine and Beswick, and prolonged major flooding around the Daly River,” Mr Hines said.