Tropical Cyclone Narelle intensifies off WA as it continues rare path across Australia

Caravan parks in Shark Bay, Western Australia, have been evacuating. Tropical Cyclone Narelle is making its way around the WA coast and will have travelled more than 5,500km (3,400 miles) by the time it approaches Perth. Photograph: Bureau of Meteorology

Tropical Cyclone Narelle was again intensifying into a severe storm off Western Australia’s Kimberley coast on Wednesday with communities in the state’s world heritage-listed Shark Bay preparing for a potential direct hit on Friday night.

Narelle had made a rare trip for a cyclone system by forming in the Coral Sea off Queensland and maintaining structure all the way west to the Indian Ocean, where it was expected to build into a major category four system.