Australia Weather News

Tropical Cyclone Mitchell has crossed Western Australia's Gascoyne coast as a category one system. 

The Bureau of Meteorology said the cyclone crossed about 1am (WST), east of Shark Bay, about 800 kilometres north of Perth, and has now weakened below tropical cyclone strength.

The tropical low is expected to bring heavy rain and gusty winds, but continue to weaken as it moves south-east over land through the southern Gascoyne region today.

It has sustained winds near the centre of 65 kilometres an hour, with wind gusts to 95km/h.

As the system weakens BoM have warned of abnormally high tides in the southern parts of Shark Bay, and possible flash flooding in surrounding areas. 

No major damage

As of 10pm AWST on Monday, Department of Fire and Emergency Services Incident Controller Will Blackshaw said there were no reports of major damage in Carnarvon or Coral Bay.

"We're hoping that in the morning when people get up and have a look around, we won't see too much more damage," Mr Blackshaw said.

"But certainly, it's looking better than not at the moment."

Mr Blackshaw said the impacts of Cyclone Mitchell were still being felt in Shark Bay, with rainfall totals surpassing 80 millimetres since 9am Monday.

"I'm just getting reports in now of approximately 200mm of rain in Monkey Mia and about 80mm in Denham," he said.

"[There was also a] little bit of water ingress into some properties there."

Mr Blackshaw said emergency crews would continue to monitor any potential damage in Shark Bay.

"We do a lot of preparatory work before these events and that doesn't stop," he said.

"We're still busy making the next plans of how we'll get resources into different areas if we need."

The system has been hugging WA's north west coastline and travelling south since Friday.

An evacuation centre remains open at the Shark Bay Recreation Centre.

A number of schools will reopen in the Pilbara, however several schools in Shark Bay will be closed to all staff and students on Tuesday. 

Rainfall welcomed

In the West Pilbara, Yalleen Station recorded 95 millimetres of rain brought by Cyclone Mitchell.

Pastoralist Michael Percy said the downpour broke a three-year dry spell at the station.

"These sort of systems are what we all look out for, because they bring that sort of general rain that's over the wide area, which is what we really need," he said.

"We've had some really useful rain, which we were starting to worry we weren't going to get.

Like many stations around the West Pilbara region, Yalleen has recorded several years of below-average rainfall.

For pastoralists in this region, cyclones can be good news if they result in much-needed water.

Mr Percy said the rain on the station over the weekend would make a "huge difference".

"It definitely changes our outlook entirely," he said.

"But unfortunately, there's a lot of people that will have missed out on this."

Liam Forrester at Winning Station, about 220 kilometres north of Carnarvon, said he was forecast to receive a deluge of up to 80mm of rain from about 4am Monday.

But he only recorded between 15 and 20mm.

"We're extremely grateful … but it is hard not to be a little bit disappointed with how dry it is," he said.

"We were hoping to break the drought here, but we look forward to the next one."