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Tropical Cyclone Fina is moving south, causing wind to strengthen and rain and storms to increase in the NT's far north. Showers and storms for southern WA, SA, the NSW ranges and Qld's south as heat combines with active troughs. Showers for eastern NSW in moist easterly winds.
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21 Nov 2025, 9:42PM UTC
Tropical Cyclone Fina has made initial landfall
Tropical Cyclone Fina crossed the Cobourg Peninsula overnight as a Category 2 system and is now over the Van Diemen Gulf, heading southwest and strengthening. As of 7.33am Northern Terrtitory time, Fina is a Category 3 Cyclone. Image: Satellite and radar animation showing the eye of Fina crossing the Cobourg Peninsula late Friday evening. The nearest weather station to the passing system was Croker Island, a good 30 km or so to the east, which recorded wind gusts of 107km/h and mean wind speeds of 76km/h. In that same location, 189mm of rain fell in the 24 hours to 9am on Fri 21st with another 95mm falling from 9am Friday to 7.30am Saturday. Munganella Airstrip, even further to the east, has picked up 213mm in the 22.5 hours to 7.30am Saturday, most of that falling since 9pm as the cyclone crossed to the west. Fina has now moved back over the open water of the Van Diemen Gulf between the mainland Northern Territory and the Tiwi Islands, likely bringing gusts of 140km/h to eastern Melville Island this morning, expected to increase to 170-190km/h over the coming few hours. Fina is still forecast to pass very close to Darwin tonight and in the early hours of Sunday morning. Gusts of well over 130km/h are possible for the city, starting as southeasterlies, and turning to northeasterlies with the passage of the system. Heavy rain of 150-300mm in less than 24 hours is also likely, with isolated heavier falls of up to 500mm. Check updating forecasts for Darwin and Tropical Cyclone Fina. Darwin is no stranger to tropical cyclones, and its strong infrastructure is vastly different from the flimsy buildings that caved under Tropical Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Nevertheless, Fina is a significant weather system, and residents are advised to prepare accordingly, as per the Bureau of Meteorology and Northern Territory Emergency Services guidelines, summarised in the latest Tropical Cyclone Advice. Flying debris as well as falling powerlines and trees are some of the potential hazards. Bombed by the Japanese in 1942, flattened by Tracy in 1974, Darwin knows how to bounce back. Stay safe. Image: Current forecast track map for Tropical Cyclone Fina as of 7.33am NT time Saturday 22nd. Source: Bureau of Meteorology Image: Forecast wind gusts from the ECMWF model for 10.30pm local time Saturday night overlaid with Fina's forecast track according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The ECMWF model has the cyclone deviating slightly southward from the forecast track.
21 Nov 2025, 5:53AM UTC
How a tropical cyclone near Darwin will cause 47C heat over Australia next week
The downstream influence of Tropical Cyclone Fina will cause intense heat to build over central Australia this weekend and early next week, with temperatures predicted to reach 46 to 47°C in at least two states. While most of November has been unusually cool for large areas of Australia, a burst of late-spring heat is about to develop over the country’s interior. Tropical Cyclone Fina, which is currently bearing down on the NT’s Top End coast, is drawing vast amounts of heat from the Timor Sea and transporting it into higher levels of the atmosphere. Image: Tropical Cyclone Fina near the NT's Top End on Friday. Over the coming days, this upper-level air will move further south before descending over the Australian continent under the influence of an upper-level high pressure system. One important point to note about the air that Fina is ejecting into the upper-atmosphere this week is that while it has lost a lot of the moisture it began with, it has retained its potential temperature. This means the air will warm up as it descends towards the ground over central Australia this weekend and early next week, a process called adiabatic warming. The two maps below show the maximum temperature forecasts for today (Friday) and Monday next week, highlighting how much warming is going to occur over the next four days. Image: Forecast maximum temperatures on Friday, November 21, 2025. Image: Forecast maximum temperatures on Monday, November 24, 2025. Temperatures on Sunday and Monday are forecast to reach 45 to 46°C in SA and 47°C in southwest Qld. Temperatures should also hit the low to mid 40s in northwest NSW and the southern NT on these days. These temperatures aren’t unprecedented for central Australia in late spring, but they may get within a degree or two of November heat records. Heatwave warnings will be issued for numerous states and territories over the coming days in response to the rapid onset of this intense heat.
21 Nov 2025, 12:02AM UTC
Fina could be Australia's first November category 3 cyclone in 20 years
Tropical Cyclone Fina is set to become the first category 3 cyclone in Australian waters in November since Cyclone Bertie-Alvin in 2005, and it could happen as early as Friday evening. While there have been six tropical cyclones to form in Australian waters during the month of November since Bertie-Alvin over the past two decades, none of them reached category 3 – the threshold at which a tropical cyclone becomes a "severe" tropical cyclone, with gusts between 165 and 224 km/h. What is Fina's current strength and position? Fina weakened to a category 1 system on Thursday and became near-stationary around 100 km off the north coast of the Northern Territory overnight. At 9:30am ACST on Friday, Fina was located about 325 kilometres northeast of Darwin, with sustained winds of 85km/h and wind gusts of 120 km/h near its core. Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino says that the atmosphere will become more favourable for the system to gain strength this Friday. This should allow Fina to regain a category 2 intensity once again. Image: Intense areas of rainfall on the radar associated with Cyclone Fina at 8:30am on Friday, November 21, 2025. Source: Weatherzone. How destructive are Fina's winds and where is it heading next? Fina is expected to pass over the Cobourg Peninsula and Tiwi Islands (northeast of Darwin) on Friday night into Saturday morning, most likely as a category 2 system with gales and damaging wind gusts possibly as powerful as 155 km/h. The BoM warns that destructive wind gusts up to 155km/h may develop between Cape Don and Warruwi (on the eastern side of the Cobourg Peninsula) later today as Fina nears the coast. The Tiwi Islands could see similar gusts early on Saturday. The BoM’s 6:30am (ACST) bulletin on Friday also stated that: "There continues to remain a chance that it could reach category 3 intensity earlier, during late Friday or early Saturday as it moves into the Van Diemen Gulf." The Van Diemen Gulf is an area of the Timor Sea, located between Darwin and the Tiwi Islands and Cobourg Peninsula to the city’s north and northeast respectively. Sea surface temperatures are at least 30°C in the gulf at present, which is warmer than normal for this time of year. Those warm waters will provide energy for Cyclone Fina’s intensification. Image: Sea surface temperatures in NT waters on November 19, 2025. Source: BoM. Will Fina reach Darwin, and if so, what might the impacts be? Tropical Cyclone Fina will pass near and possibly over Darwin on Saturday night into Sunday morning, and the BoM’s latest warnings say that destructive wind gusts up to 155km/h may develop over Darwin later on Saturday. Heavy rainfall which may lead to flash flooding is also possible along coastal areas between the Tiwi Islands and Warruwi from Friday, extending to the coast and nearby inland across the western Top End including Darwin on Saturday. In terms of actual rainfall totals, Friday’s forecast has changed little from yesterday, with widespread 100 to 300 mm likely over the northwest Top End, including the Darwin region, and isolated totals around 500 mm. Image: The latest track map for Cyclone Fina, issued at 10:34am (ACST) on Friday, November 21, 2025. Source: Weatherzone. What will Fina do after it passes through or near Darwin? Once past Darwin, models suggest Fina will track over the southern Timor Sea and intensify on Sunday into Monday, possibly becoming a category 3 severe tropical cyclone (if it has not already reached that strength). Increasing wind shear from Monday should then weaken the system as it approaches the north Kimberley coast early next week. Check our Darwin forecast page and the BoM's tropical cyclone page for the latest information.