It looks like Cyclone Anthony is going to cross well south of us:
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
One noticeable effect we are seeing already is wind coming from south south west as the air circulates around. I can’t recall wind from that direction before.
So Cyclone Anthony has finally made it’s mind up and is heading back up the coast. Here are the track maps from BoM:
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
The map above does not look good.
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
And this map looks even worse. According to the ABC there is another system heading this way from Fiji that could reach Category 4 or 5 before crossing the coast very close to us. Cat 5 is the biggest on a scale of 1-5. Nice.
Edit: It seems we are on Cyclone Watch, as of 5pm.
Thanks, as always to BoM for the track maps.
I’ve been keeping an eye on Cyclone Anthony despite it heading away from the coast. Here are the track maps:
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
Tropical Cyclone Anthony
At this point it looks like it’s going to fade out to nothing.
A major preoccupation in FNQ at this time of year is watching the predicted and actual tracks of cyclone. This being a La Niña year, and a biggie as they go, we’ve been watching developments with interest. The best way to deal with cyclones is to be prepared and the information from the Bureau of Meteorology is invaluable. As usual, clicking an image will give you a full-sized version.
Here’s the cyclone map on the 2011-01-14:
Australian Cyclone Map
And here’s the same map a day later:
Australian Cyclone map
TC Vince, off the coast of Western Australia, has petered out so the people in that region can relax again.
Here are the track maps of TC Zelia:
Cyclone Zelia Track Map
As you can see, for the first couple of days of its life it was a Tropical Low but on the 14th it was predicted to become a Category 1 Tropical Cyclone. Cat 1 is the lowest strength on a scale of 1-5.
Cyclone Zelia Track Map
The prediction was changed indicating that the Tropical Low would become a Cat 1 cyclone early on the 15th as the people at the Bureau of Meteorology were able to get a better idea of where it was going and how it would develop.
Cyclone Zelia Track Map
It turned out that the first prediction of the 14th was correct and the cyclone was duly named TC Zelia. There is an alphabetical list of 104 names that BoM uses for cyclones and Zelia will be the last of the current A-Z list. The next one will be TC Anthony.
Cyclone Zelia Track Map
By the evening of the 15th Zelia was still a Cat 1 cyclone but was still heading in a general south east direction.
Cyclone Zelia Track Map
By late on the 15th Zelia was still heading SE but had grown in intensity to a Cat 3.
Cyclone Zelia Track Map
As you can see from the image above, Zelia was due east of us, still a Cat 3 and is still heading SE but moving at a faster pace. It was predicted to pass west of the coast of French Caledonia at 3am this morning but the latest information from BoM hasn’t been published yet. The people of French Caledonia and Norfolk island should escape the worst of the winds but will doubtless get a good soaking.
I’ll update this post as fresh maps become available and many thanks to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for the data.
NB The various cyclone categories used in Australia can be compared to other basins here.
Dear family, friends and casual passers-by,
It looks like we may have some problems connecting to the Internet for the next day or three so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us. Phones are still working perfectly. Here’s the advisory from our ISP as it stands currently. This will obviously change with time so please check Internode’s advisory page if you feel so inclined.
Internet Outage
Some other useful info: