And there isn’t any finish to the large moist in sight, with Weatherzone now warning the system might drift again out to sea and intensify into one other cyclone.
WA’s Minister for Emergency Services Stephen Dawson introduced an Emergency Situation has been declared as some rivers endure their largest flood on document.
“Emergency services have completed a number of flood rescues for people in Fitzroy Crossing.”
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warns the Fitzroy River remains to be rising at Fitzroy Crossing.
It comes after 831 mm of rain was recorded at a gauge at Dimond Gorge, north of Fitzroy Crossing over a week-long interval.
“The Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing may reach around 15.60 metres Tuesday afternoon.
“Further rises are doable as upstream floodwaters arrive.”
This exceeds the 2002 flood record of 13.95 metres.
The main bridge over the river is inundated, and has buckled under the force of the water, leaving the town cut off.
Numerous roads have been closed around the Kimberley as rivers burst their banks.
“Other notable totals throughout this one-week interval included 635 mm at Phillips Range and 576 mm at Mount Joseph,” Weatherzone said.
System could re-intensify into another cyclone
Weatherzone said the heavy rain will continue throughout the week.
“There is even an opportunity that it might briefly drift again over open water to the north of WA, which might enable it to accentuate right into a tropical cyclone.”
If that occurs the system may, or may not, be called Cyclone Ellie.
“Tropical Cyclone Ellie was a brief-lived cyclone…After strengthening to a class 1 cyclone (the bottom class of cyclone classification) that lasted only some hours, Ellie crossed the western Top End coast south of the Daly River mouth early within the morning of December 23rd and have become a tropical low,” Weatherzone said.
“Since then, she has wheeled east to the Queensland/NT border and again to the Kimberley, all of the whereas triggering storms and dropping intense quantities of rain.”
Cyclone season typically runs from the start of November to the end of April.
The BoM expects there will likely be extra tropical cyclones than common this season as Australia is within the grips of a La Niña occasion.