Cyclone Narelle: Geraldton escapes the impact of gigantic storm as it tracks inland and loses steam

After a day leaving a giant trail of destruction in northern WA, Geraldton escaped the path of Cyclone Narelle on Friday night.

Despite being under an emergency warning with forecasts of winds up to 125km/h and heavy rainfall, the cyclone bypassed Geraldton as it tracked inland while losing steam. Earlier in the day it had pummelled Exmouth and Carnarvon.

At 8pm, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services extended a “shelter indoors now” emergency warning for the area south of Binnu to Greenough. It was later expanded to south of Geraldton to Arrowsmith, extending inland to Paynes Find and Dalwallinu.

As of 7.30am on Saturday, an emergency warning was still in place for inland areas east of Mullewa, while Narelle was no longer a tropical cyclone.

Peopel in the emergency zone are still warned to stay indoors until emergency services advise it is safe to go outside.

In Geraldton, the strongest wind gust recorded overnight was about 56km/h while only 1.6mm of rain was recorded.

EARLIER ON FRIDAY: Geraldton locals spent the day counting down and preparing for Cyclone Narelle’s arrival in the early hours of Saturday. It is forecast that the cyclone could weaken to a category one when it hits Geraldton.

Currently at a category two, the cyclone crossed the coast south of Coral Bay around 2pm on Friday and is tracking inland, forecast to pass over Morawa.

Destructive wind gusts in excess of 125km/h are forecast overnight in the Gascoyne, Murchison and Central West, possibly as far south as Morawa early on Saturday morning. Heavy rainfall may lead to flash flooding.

Earlier on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology was predicting Geraldton 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.”

Geraldton and Kalbarri are predicted to face wind strengths of a category one system, 66-88km/hr, and towns on the eastern side of the system likely to experience category two strength winds, 89–117 km/h.

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.

Residents are urged to prepare for the severe weather.

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 were closed on Friday 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.

At 3pm on Friday, the evacuation centre remained quiet. A few travellers and rough sleepers sought shelter at the basketball courts, but there was plenty of room for more. The carpark had less than 10 cars present.

Late on Friday morning, the City of Greater Geraldton had encouraged anyone from Mullewa who felt unsure of their homes ability to withstand the cyclone to act promptly and head to the Geraldton evacuation centre.

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.

City mayor Jerry Clune took to social media on Friday afternoon to refute online speculation “about power being turned off”.

“At our latest briefing, Western Power confirmed they are NOT planning to switch off power at any stage. That said, with the incoming weather, outages could (and likely will) happen, so it’s best to be prepared,” he said.

State Emergency Services has received calls from across WA over the past 24 hours, including 23 from Exmouth and 16 calls from the Mid West since Thursday — with more likely to come.

Most of those Mid West calls were sandbag requests, as well as some for roof damage and water ingress.

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.