Weather tracker: Ex-Tropical Cyclone Lincoln soaks northern Australia
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued severe warnings across Northern Australia over the weekend due to a tropical cyclone called Lincoln. Making landfall on Friday afternoon as a category one Cyclone, Lincoln maintained its strength into the evening before being downgraded to a tropical low or ex-tropical cyclone (Ex-TC). By Saturday morning, 202mm of rain had fallen over 24 hours at Centre Island, located to the north-east of Borroloola and nearby to where Lincoln made landfall.
The Ex-TC then slowly tracked westwards across the Northern Territory as it brought heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts to a series of districts. Warnings of flash flooding were issued by the BOM for a series of northern districts in the Northern Territory, with rainfall totals of 60-100mm forecast to fall within a six-hour period; 80-140mm expected over the 24-hour period. Tennant Creek, located in the west of the Barkly district, recorded 138.4mm of rain within 24 hours by Sunday morning.
A further warning for locally intense rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding was issued for the these districts, with six-hourly totals of up to 150mm possible near the centre and southern side of the Ex-TC, and 24-hourly totals of up to 220mm possible.
Ex-TC Lincoln is forecast to arrive into Western Australia by late Monday, passing across the Kimberley region before heading into the Indian Ocean by the middle of this week, where there is a high probability for the system to regenerate and return to its tropical cyclone status.
Lincoln was the third cyclone of the season, which runs from November to April, following on from Cyclone Kirrily at the start of the month and Cyclone Jasper in mid-December. Some parts of the Northern Territory were yet to fully recover from the flooding caused by Kirrily, particularly in the Victoria River catchment.
The Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) issued a significant coastal risk for the Island of Menorca on Tuesday. With the Spanish peninsula under the influence of high pressure, northerly winds are set to blow across the Mediterranean and directly towards the north coast of Menorca. Blustery conditions are expected throughout most of Tuesday, but with the most significant risk from midday through until 10pm when gusts may peak up to 70km/h, with the risk of bringing waves with a height of 4 to 5 metres.