{"id":558079,"date":"2026-03-23T01:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T01:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/558079\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T01:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T01:19:10","slug":"adelaide-river-flooding-darwin-region-pounded-overnight-by-severe-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/558079\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide River flooding: Darwin region pounded overnight by severe weather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The township of Adelaide River is on an emergency flooding alert as Darwin and its outer regions wake from a night of severe weather, strong winds and the risks left behind by ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle.<\/p>\n<p>Major flooding is occurring along the Upper Adelaide River.<\/p>\n<p>BOM data shows Adelaide River Town had 202.5mm of rainfall since 9am Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The Adelaide River at Adelaide River Town is currently at 12.62m and rising, with major flooding. <\/p>\n<p>Initial reports have the floodwater up to the Adelaide River pub, with evacuations occurring.<\/p>\n<p>The Adelaide River at Adelaide River Town is likely to peak near 12.7m during today midmorning, with major flooding.<\/p>\n<p>Member for Daly Dheran Young urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel, as the Stuart Highway remained cut off 7km north of the town.<\/p>\n<p>Traffic controllers were headed to the area on Monday morning to direct traffic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful the road will reopen later today, but please stay updated via SecureNT for the latest information,\u201d Mr Young said on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been reported that around four properties have been affected by flooding, but thankfully everyone is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It comes after authorities spent all of yesterday issuing severe weather warnings in the Top End that included the Darwin region, warning anyone impacted by weather over the past weeks to prepare for the possibility of flash flooding.<\/p>\n<p>Ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle is currently located to the east of Wadeye as a deep tropical low. The system is expected to continue moving towards the west-southwest before crossing the Daly coast later this morning.<\/p>\n<p>DARWIN REGION PUT ON ALERT<\/p>\n<p>March 22: At an update before midday on Sunday, before Narelle\u2019s impact started to be felt, authorities said the Darwin River Dam was at 101 per cent capacity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ground is saturated, our rivers are already full, and any additional rainfall \u2013 which could be in the hundreds of millimetres \u2013 is going to make a significant impact and it could have rapid consequences,\u201d Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo people do need to stay alert. If we see flash flooding, it could include the Darwin rural area again as well. \u2029<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know parts of Humpty-Doo, for example, and Darwin River experience flash flooding. Anyone who has seen water levels rise or been inundated and impacted, you must remain vigilant. This could impact you again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many residents along the <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ntnews.com.au\/news\/northern-territory\/authorities-have-responded-to-darwin-river-residents-flood-response-claims\/news-story\/2ed714e59ae9c14cad4e4917bc695862\" title=\"www.ntnews.com.au\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"2ed714e59ae9c14cad4e4917bc695862\" data-tgev-label=\"news\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darwin River were taken by surprise earlier this month<\/a> when flash flooding inundated dozens of homes \u2013 several forced to <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ntnews.com.au\/news\/darwin-river-residents-return-to-face-devastating-ruin-of-floodhit-homes\/news-story\/94a07af29c9df3a8369a9feac34a18a5\" title=\"www.ntnews.com.au\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"94a07af29c9df3a8369a9feac34a18a5\" data-tgev-label=\"news\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shelter on their roofs<\/a> as waters rose around them.<\/p>\n<p>Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman Jude Scott said the fact Narelle had been downgraded from a cyclone to a tropical low was no cause for complacency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs anyone who has spent some time in the Top End would know, it\u2019s often the tropical lows that really bring the heavy rainfall to inland parts of the Territory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe distinction between a tropical low and a cyclone is largely around the wind strength wrapping around the system.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In more positive news Ms Scott said the system was moving quickly \u2013 at about 20km\/h west across the Top End.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we compare this current system with the system from the last few weeks that brought the extremely heavy rainfall \u2026 that was a tropical low that was quite slow moving across the Territory, and it stalled at various times, which really helped to support those heavier rainfall totals that led to the river flooding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis system is moving considerably faster across the Territory, so we\u2019re expecting it to have made the entire journey from east to west within a 24 hour period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The severe weather warning spanned from Darwin and Palmerston, to Jabiru, Ngukurr, Larrimah, Timber Creek and Wadeye.<\/p>\n<p>Heavy rainfall has caused flooding in areas across the central Top End. <\/p>\n<p>Six-hourly rainfall totals between 80mm and 120mm were recorded, along with 24-hourly rainfall totals between 180mm to 230mm.<\/p>\n<p>Localised damaging wind gusts up to 100 km\/h were possible in the warning area into Monday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The township of Adelaide River is on an emergency flooding alert as Darwin and its outer regions wake&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,689,275431,275426,140042,200323,181679,192997,275425,30376,275424,44,8867,677,275427,275428,275430,275432,275423,139636,275422,275429],"class_list":["post-558079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-authorties-warning","tag-damaging-wind-gusts","tag-damaging-winds","tag-flash-flooding","tag-flash-floods","tag-heavy-rainfall","tag-jude-scott","tag-lia-finocchiaro","tag-life-threatening-flash-flooding","tag-news","tag-northern-territory","tag-oceania","tag-rainfall-totals","tag-river-flooding","tag-stay-alert","tag-timber-creek","tag-warning-area","tag-weather-warning","tag-weather-warning-area","tag-wind-strength-wrapping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}