Cyclone Narelle forecast tracking map: where is its path expected to cross WA coast and will it reach Perth?

Tropical Cyclone Narelle tracking map showing the forecast path of TC Narelle over Western Australia and near Perth. The storm is expected to hit the WA coast on Friday afternoon as a severe category 3 system. Photograph: The Guardian

Tropical Cyclone Narelle is forecast to make landfall in Western Australia on Friday afternoon as a severe category 3 system. The massive storm hit far north Queensland last week, before moving over the Northern Territory and then continuing all the way west to the Indian Ocean.

You can follow the path of Tropical Cyclone Narelle in the tracking map below. The map will be updated periodically with the latest forecasts, with the live BoM Tropical Cyclone 34U forecast track map available here.

Narelle had weakened offshore by late Friday morning local time into a category 3 system, producing gusts of up to 220km/h, the Bureau of Meteorology said. The storm was likely to cross the coast between Coral Bay and Cape Cuvier, near Carnarvon.

Tropical Cyclone Narelle was set to be the first storm system for 20 years to make landfall in three of Australia’s states and territories, and was forecast to have travelled more than 5,500km (3,400 miles) by the time it approached Perth.

You can see the both the power of the winds and sheer size of the storm in the following map. It uses wind speeds and directions modelled by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of its Global Forecast System.

This page will be updated as the story develops …