Cyclone Niran: BOM warning in place in Cairns as system upgraded to Category 2

A tropical cyclone churning off north Queensland’s coast has been upgraded to a Category 2 system.

Cyclone Niran was packing 95km/h winds and 130km/h gusts as it slowly tracked about 280km northeast of Cairns on Tuesday afternoon, leaving thousands of homes without power and heavy rain causing floods in some areas.

“The cyclone is expected to continue moving slowly to the northeast during today before becoming slow-moving or drifting back slowly to the west this evening into Wednesday,”…