Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina - Radar Update (22/11 PM)

Here’s an updated, plain-English version with the wind shift added.

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Current situation – Darwin and Point Stuart

* The radar shows Fina’s eye up near the Tiwi Islands, with a tight ring of rain around the centre.

There’s a *thick band of rain wrapping in from the west and south behind the cyclone** – that’s where the heaviest falls are coming from.

*Darwin Airport** has had a bit over 30 mm since 9 am, with south-southeasterly winds around 50–70 km/h and gusts into the 70s.

*Point Stuart** is closer to that main rain band and has picked up around 100 mm since 9 am, with similar gusts.

From the gauges and radar, the rain near the centre is running at about 10 mm an hour, but the band behind the cyclone is almost double that in places, which is why totals east of Darwin are much higher. More bands will keep swinging around from the north-west and west, so you’ll see on-and-off heavy showers and squally rain even as the centre slowly edges away.

Wind changes as Fina moves west of Darwin

As Fina tracks past and just to the north-west of Darwin, the pressure difference will peak:

Winds that are *south-southeast now** will tend more southerly, then south-westerly as the eye draws level and moves off to the west.

Gusts are likely to *pick up another notch** during that time, with the strongest winds for Darwin and the rural area expected as the centre sits just to the north-west and west of the city.

So even though the eye stays offshore, Darwin, the rural area and the coast from Dundee Beach to Point Stuart can still expect a further lift in wind and more heavy showers as those wrap-around bands continue to feed through.