Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle has been upgraded to a category three severe tropical cyclone over the Coral Sea as it heads towards Norfolk Island.

Gabrielle first became a tropical cyclone on Wednesday this week and has since gained strength while drifting towards the south and southeast over the last 48 hours.

At 8am AEST on Friday, February 10, Gabielle had become a category three severe tropical cyclone, located roughly 1410 kilometres northwest of Norfolk Island and 620 kilometres northeast of Bundaberg.

Category three is the first of three severe tropical cyclone categories on the five-tiered Australian scale, reserved only for systems whose peak sustained wind speeds are in excess of 117 km/h. Gabrielle’s peak average wind speed on Wednesday morning was estimated to be around 120 km/h near the system’s core.

Image: Enhanced infrared satellite image showing Severe Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle between Australia and New Caledonia at 10am AEST on Friday, February 10.

Severe tropical cyclone Gabrielle will continue to move towards the southeast over the few couple of days, taking it on a path between Australia and New Caledonia towards Norfolk Island.

At this stage, Gabrielle is expected to pass very close to Norfolk Island on Saturday evening. While it should have weakened back to a category two system by the time it reaches Norfolk Island, Gabrielle will still be strong enough to produce destructive gale force winds, abnormally high tides and heavy rain this weekend.

There is more uncertainty regarding the position of Gabrielle beyond the weekend. However, some forecast models suggest it could transition into a strong extra-tropical cyclone and bring severe weather to New Zealand’s North Island from Sunday into early next week.

You can check the latest severe weather information for Norfolk Island here and for New Zealand here.