Cyclone Narelle brings strong winds and rain, now forecast to hit Northern Territory after lashing Queensland’s northeast coast

SYDNEY: Tropical Cyclone Narelle was forecast to hit ⁠Australia’s Northern Territory on Saturday after a day earlier bringing destructive winds, ​heavy rain and power outages to ‌the country’s northeast coast.

Narelle, ​a category two system moving west in the Gulf of Carpentaria, would likely reach the remote east ​of the territory late on Saturday, the nation’s weather ⁠bureau ‌said.

“Narelle is ​forecast to strengthen ​during Saturday as it tracks quickly westwards,” ​the bureau said, forecasting destructive winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph).

On Friday, Narelle made landfall as a category four system, a rung ‌short of the strongest, in neighbouring Queensland state about 550 km (340 miles) north of Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef tourist attraction.

Weather ⁠officials later downgraded ‌the storm as it moved inland. Narelle comes after Tropical Cyclone Fina hit the Northern Territory ​in November and conjured up painful memories ​of Cyclone ​Tracy that wiped out much of ‌the ​region’s capital Darwin on Christmas Day 1974.

Tracy killed 66 people in what was one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.

 The Sun Malaysia