Cyclone Carlos has helped Darwin break a number of rainfall records, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says as the storm now heads away from the coast.
The category one system hovered over the Northern Territory capital on Wednesday but didn't hit Top End residents as hard on Wednesday night as it did on Tuesday, the BoM said.
The storm early on Thursday was moving away taking its howling winds and torrential rain with it.
BoM duty forecaster David Matthews told AAP gusts of about 90 kilometres per hour dropped to about 60km/h.
Since 9am (CST) on Wednesday, Stokes Hill Wharf in the Darwin city has received 226mm of rain.
BoM Senior forecaster Mark Kersemakers said Darwin airport recorded its highest gust at 98km/h, but on Wednesday night the strongest gust topped just 85km/h.
Cyclone Carlos had helped Darwin break a number of rainfall records, he said.
So far this month, Darwin has already recorded at least 830mm, beating the previous February monthly record of 814mm, in 1969.
The city needed to receive only a further 300mm by the end of April to beat its previous wet season record of 2499mm set in 1997-98, Mr Kersemakers said.
Schools, courts, pubs, tourism attractions, the NT Parliament and Darwin Airport are expected to remain closed on Thursday as authorities re-assess the situation.
At 5am (CST) on Thursday, the BoM issued its 14th advisory warning for areas from Port Keats to Oenpelli, including Darwin, Batchelor, Adelaide River and the Tiwi Islands.
At 3.30am (CST) category one Tropical Cyclone Carlos was estimated to be 35km east northeast of Batchelor and 70km southeast of Darwin,moving southeast at 9km/h.
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