According to CNN, the tropical cyclone Jasper is rapidly strengthening off the northern coast of Australia. According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, the cyclone intensified on Friday to the strength of a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum winds of 220 kilometres per hour (138 mph). According to the nation’s meteorological bureau, “a category 5 system cannot be ruled out, and further intensification on Friday is possible.” Since records have been kept in the Coral Sea since 1900, Jasper is the earliest Category 4 tropical cyclone to form there.
The storm, which is located 1,195 kilometres (742 miles) northeast of Queensland and is moving south at 9 kph (6 mph), could strike the coast near Cairns, a city of 250,000 people, with maximum sustained winds of 140 kph (87 mph) by early Tuesday.
Forecasters, however, say the cyclone’s projected path could change.
The storm’s arrival is unusually early during El Nino, a climate pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and generally reduces rainfall along Australia’s east coast, as per CNN.
This year, the system has affected weather patterns all over the world and has the potential to affect storm seasons in particular. In the meantime, several Australian states and territories, including New South Wales, which is home to more than 8 million people, have issued heat advisories. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology predicts that Saturday’s high in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, will be 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), helped along by strong, dry winds.