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.
Just in case anyone was wondering if the roads up here are really that bad:
FNQ Road conditions
The Bureau Of Meteorology outlook for the cyclone season is up:
Seasonal Outlook 2010-11 for Queensland and the Coral Sea Region
Summary: La Nina boosts the odds of Queensland having an active cyclone season.
Queensland may experience above average tropical cyclone activity this coming season, with up to six cyclones developing in the Coral Sea. It is also likely to be wetter than normal in most parts.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Queensland Regional Director, Jim Davidson, said this is because we’re now in a La Nina climate phase, which he expects will remain the dominating influence through the Spring and Summer months.
La Nina events are usually associated with above normal rainfall across much of Queensland and enhanced tropical cyclone activity in the Coral Sea.
Mr Davidson said “What this translates to is where historically we could expect an average of four cyclones a season in the Coral Sea, we now expect the number to be potentially higher, but the number of cyclones actually making landfall can be quite variable from season to season.”
“However, under these conditions, we have a good chance of a cyclone crossing the coast before the year is out.” he said.
Full version can be read at the BoM site.
It looks like it could an interesting season.