People have been told to seek shelter with the intensifying Kirrily set to bring gusts of up to 170km/h when it crosses the coast on Thursday night.
Kirrily was initially upgraded to a category two system on Thursday morning.
Tropical Cyclone Advice has been reissued, TC Kirrily has been upgraded to a Category 3 Severe Tropical Cyclone with wind gusts near the centre expected to reach 165km/h. The TC is expected to cross the coast near Townsville tonight: — Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) https://t.co/nicDlNvGtw pic.twitter.com/8PUzD3Ea9DJanuary 25, 2024
Just five hours later it had reached category three status, producing wind gusts up to 165km/h.
It is set to cross the coast near Townsville as a category three cyclone on Thursday night.
Winds of 120km/h are already impacting some areas.
Heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding is likely to develop between Tully and Bowen on Thursday afternoon.
North Queensland has begun to shut down with people told to stay indoors from 2pm AEST as winds intensified.
"You really don't want to be outdoors with some of these gusts," Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said.
"It could drop a tree branch, it could pick up a piece of rubbish and hit you.
"That's why we are asking people to stay indoors."
Six thousand sandbags have been distributed to residents, a new community record. (Dan Peled/AAP PHOTOS)
Townsville airport and more than 120 schools are closed while a local hospital has suspended surgeries.
People have begun to arrive at evacuation centres with hundreds of emergency services - bolstered by interstate arrivals - on standby across the north.
More than 40,000 sandbags have already been deployed.
"We're prepared and ready for the worst - now we wait and hope for the best," Premier Steven Miles said.
Mr Miles has pre-emptively declared a disaster and requested federal and state assistance.
The SES had received almost 150 calls for assistance by Thursday morning.
The first sign of Kirrily was felt in the Whitsundays on Thursday morning.
"We are starting to experience the strong winds and rain as well," Whitsunday Mayor Julie Hall told AAP.
Meteorologist Laura Boekel says Kirrily will continue to bring rainfall once it is downgraded. (Russell Freeman/AAP PHOTOS)
"As we progress toward this evening we expect the wind to pick up and also the wet weather."
Gusts up to 155 km/h could develop between Ayr and Bowen, moving north to Ingham and Townsville on Thursday night before "very destructive" winds of 170km/h when the system crosses.
"It's not just the winds but is also the flooding that we want people to be aware of," the Bureau of Meteorology's Laura Boekel said.
The approaching cyclone is also set to trigger a storm tide between Townsville and Mackay, producing larger waves and flooding.
Intense rainfall that could lead to "life-threatening and dangerous flash flooding" will be at the centre of the system.
There could be isolated totals of up to 300mm in 24 hours as Kirrily crosses the coast.
"We can also see rainfall associated with this system once it has crossed the coast and it will continue to bring rainfall even when it becomes downgraded," Ms Boekel said.
After it makes landfall, the system will weaken to a tropical low and move inland, bringing heavy rain to central and western Queensland from Friday.
"We could see showers and storms across the south of the state, producing more rainfall than usual because of the system in the north," Ms Boekel said.
Kirrily is the second cyclone to threaten Queensland in a month, with Jasper - a category two system - causing record flooding that devastated the far north in December.
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