Coastal communities in Western Australia's Pilbara remain on red alert as Tropical Cyclone Olwyn tracks close to the upper West Australian coast, bringing destructive wind gusts and heavy rainfall to the Northwest Cape.
The category three system was about 95 kilometres south-south-west of Coral Bay and 100 kilometres north Carnarvon at 10:00am, with wind gusts of more than 165 kilometres per hour likely near Cape Cuvier and possibly extending to Carnarvon.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) chief forecaster Neil Bennett said the cyclone had not yet crossed the coast, but was likely to do so near Denham this evening.
It would likely be downgraded to a category one storm by tomorrow, weakening into a tropical low that would have a severe impact on Perth and the south-west.
CYCLONE DETAILS: As at 10.03am the Bureau of Meteorology advises category 3 Severe Tropical Cyclone Olwyn is estimated to be 95 kilometres south of Coral Bay and 100 kilometres north of Carnarvon.
It is moving south at 26 kilometres per hour.
The centre of Severe Tropical Cyclone Olwyn is tracking very close to the coast as it moves southwards towards Carnarvon.
Just started to rain here at Seabird. According to radar there is a rain band a few hours ahead of the cyclone, hopefully it will blow out before it gets this far south. Could do with the rain just not the winds.
Well so far it has been nothing to write about for us and now it has turned into a rain bearing depression. Little bit of rain over night.... a whole 2.5 ml (10points in old language)!!! Just hope it doesn't cause too much havoc along the beachfront at Seabird with high tides and storm waves. Several houses along the beachfront are already in danger of ending up in the sea with coastal erosion.