Australia braces for most powerful cyclone in 8 years Ilsa, with wind gust at 315 k.m. per hour

A tropical cyclone nearing Australia is forecast to be the most powerful storm in eight years to hit the country, bringing wind gusts of up to 315 kilometers (196 miles) per hour as it crosses the northwest coast, meteorologists said Thursday.

Cyclones are common along the sparsely populated Pilbara coast of Western Australia state and fatalities are rare, but authorities fear that Cyclone Ilsa’s extraordinary wind speeds could take some in its path by surprise.

Ilsa reached the highest Category 5 intensity Thursday over the Indian Ocean and is expected to maintain that destructive level as it crosses the Pilbara coast by early Friday, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said.
Category 5 cyclones have mean wind speeds exceeding 200 kph (124 mph) with gusts exceeding 280 kph (174 mph). They typically cause widespread destruction, the bureau said.

The last Category 5 storm to cross the Australian coast was Cyclone Marcia in 2015. Marcia caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in the east coast state of Queensland.

In 2019, Category 5 Cyclone Veronica did not cross the Pilbara coast, but damaged infrastructure and disrupted the region’s mining and offshore gas industries.

Ilsa is expected to cross the coast somewhere in a 220-kilometer (137-mile) span between the iron ore export town of Port Hedland and Wallal Downs Station, a 200,000-hectare (500,000-acre) cattle ranch to the east.
Those close to where Ilsa makes landfall will experience gusts of up to 315 kph (196 mph), the bureau said.
The storm’s expected landfall is near the remote Pardoo Roadhouse and Tavern where manager Will Batth planned to shelter.