Australia Weather News

Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina has passed Darwin at category three strength, with the weather system's gale-force winds leaving a path of destruction as it continues west into the ocean. 

Fina was the Northern Territory's strongest cyclone to pass Darwin since the deadly Cyclone Tracy in 1974.

The system was also more powerful than Cyclone Marcus, which passed Darwin as a category two in 2018.

Now tracking west-south-west, Severe TC Fina is picking up strength over the Timor Sea and is expected to move over the top of Western Australia in the coming days.

A cyclone warning is in place for the central and western Tiwi Islands and Cape Hotham to Wadeye, including Darwin, Pirlangimpi, Milikapiti, Wurrumiyanga and Wadeye.

A cyclone watch is active from Wadeye in the NT to Troughton Island in WA, including Kalumburu.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) 7:30am update, sustained winds near the centre of the cyclone reached 150 kilometres per hour this morning and Fina produced wind gusts up to 205km/h.

BOM said "destructive wind gusts" of up to 155km/h could continue impacting coastal areas of the Cox Peninsula, including Dundee Beach in the coming hours, while gales were likely about coastal areas south-west of Darwin to Daly River Mouth.

Heavy to locally intense rainfall, with the potential to lead to flash flooding, is expected to continue around Darwin and south-west to Daly River Mouth this morning.

The BOM has said "conditions are forecast to ease" through Sunday, after the worst of the damaging winds lasted from about 6pm to about midnight on Saturday.

But Fina could intensify to a category four from this afternoon, according to BOM's latest cyclone track map.

What is the damage? 

A number of Top End suburbs lost power overnight including parts of Darwin, Palmerston, some rural areas and the Tiwi Islands.

According to Power and Water Corporation, there were still five unplanned outages as of this morning, but crews had paused repairs overnight for safety reasons.

Videos showed the cyclone's destructive power, ripping a powerline apart and causing a small explosion of sparks.

Powerful winds also brought trees down across the city.

A section of roofing partially collapsed on the first floor of Royal Darwin Hospital overnight, with reports of water inside the building.

No-one was injured.

Initial reports said the theatre and the intensive care unit were affected by the incident, but incident controller Emma Carter said the Department of Health confirmed "they hadn't been impacted".

NT Health Minister Steve Edgington said the NT Health chief executive had engineers on-site assessing the structural integrity of the damaged area.

Federal Minister for Emergency Management Kristy McBain said support would be available to Territorians impacted by the extreme weather event.

The minister said Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel were on stand-by to help with the clean-up efforts, and financial assistance would be available to support local governments and communities as they recover.

Ms McBain said the federal government was working with the NT government to provide support, including any requests for funding from the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.