The threat remains for Tropical Cyclone Iggy to bring Western Australia’s northwestern tip hurricane strength winds and unleash flooding rainfall over the next couple of days.

The storm is expected to meander within a couple hundred miles of the coast through at least Tuesday. The possibility remains for a landfall, however it appears more likely that the storm center

remains offshore.

Saturday evening (local time, Saturday morning EST), Iggy was churning more than 200 miles off the coast of Australia’s northwestern tip with its strength equal to that of a strong tropical storm in the

Atlantic or Eastern Pacific basins.

See Also: Naming Hurricanes Video

Iggy will gain hurricane strength later this weekend as it presses closer to the coastline.

Around Monday, Iggy is expected come within 150 miles of Learmonth before slowly taking a turn more toward the south. Iggy is then expected to continue southward, parallel to the Australian coastline on Tuesday.

Bands of drenching rain associated with Iggy will stream into Australia’s northwestern coast through the weekend. Many communities near the coast, northward to the city of Broome, could receive several

inches.

Through early next week, seas along the northwestern coast will also turn increasingly rough and dangerous for swimmers.

The slow pace of Iggy could lead to flooding rainfall along and just inland from the coast, nearest Iggy’s track.

Iggy has already prompted companies to halt production at oil fields off the coast of northwestern Australia, according to The Australian Newspaper.

Meteorologist Eric Leister contributed to this story.