TC Blanche brings heavy rain and strong winds around Darwin

The remarkably inactive cyclone season off Australia's north has finally been disturbed by a major storm, as Tropical Cyclone Blanche brings heavy rain and strong winds to the Top End around Darwin.

The storm, ranked as a category‑1, is likely to strengthen into a category‑2 cyclone by later this afternoon.

So far this season, no cyclone has made landfall on mainland Australia. If Cyclone Blanche crosses the coast as expected, it will be the latest on record for the first landfall on the continent during a season.

The Bureau of Meteorology said in a warning issued on Sunday, that the storm has "sustained winds near the centre of 75 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 100 kilometres per hour".

Source: Stuff