Low developing off the Gold Coast

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

There was practically a full page about it in todays Sunday Mail. There's a possibility of it forming into a cyclone. A watch is being kept on it.

[Robert_T]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

There was practically a full on it in todays Sunday Mail. There's a possibility of it forming into a cyclone. A watch is being kept on it.

to coin a phrase "bugger!"

guess that observing out for at least a week or so

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

A Cyclone forming off the Gold Coast , if that is not evidence of global warming, I dont know what is
I have never heard of a cyclone developing so far south

[EddieT (Eddie)]

I don't think it's as bad as that. Here is Boms current summary

Synoptic Situation
A small 1006 hPa low located about 75nm south-east of Cape Moreton is expected to drift southwards overnight and slowly weaken.

Strong Warning
Cape Moreton. Strong Wind Warning
Cape Moreton to Coolangatta including Moreton Bay
Expect SE winds 25/33 knots to continue through the remainder of the afternoon and then begin to decrease to below 25 knots tonight. Seas to 3.5 metres.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Yep, I saw that after I read the thread.
FNQ on the other hand is getting hammered by a big storm on the tablelands.
WA is getting the first Cyclone of the season.
Here in Gove, the usual afternoon storms are building up !

[vash (Ashley)]

I live one the gold coast. I can tell you that it is windy and rainy at the moment, haven't heard much about a cyclone, then again I've been working too much to watch tv or anything

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Vash, it was only a low, that with very bad luck could have become worse.
It's been a week now since I've had the scope out. I'm suffering severe withdrawals, I'm bored, I'm sick of the clouds and rain. I've even started doing housework and baking to pass the time.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Housework & Baking ... desperate times call for desperate measures.
I have been doing Landscaping & housework myself !
Oh well it is the wet season

I dont think you have anything to worry about. Usually tropical depressions form in the 05S to 20S lattitudes and then if the conditions are right form into tropical cyclones, also this almost always happens in the southern hemisphere between about November and April and within an area which is called the monsoon trough. Incidentally a cyclone is the opposite of a high pressure system here in the southern hemisphere which is called an anticyclone. Once a cyclone forms in these lattitudes, and very much dependent upon atmospheric conditions, they tend to move towards the south and as they reach cooler water conditions, weaken into depressions. These systems require warm water to feed them and obviously as they move south, they lose this infeed and weaken into what we southerners know as low pressure systems. And these can be quite devatastating in their own right, but usually not anywhere near as powerful as a tropical cyclone. As usual there can be exceptions to the rule, but this is very rare. Any meteorologist out there will I feel confirm this. BTW we regularly get gutsy "cyclones' in the great Australian Bight in winter which can be quite gutsy in their own right, but because they dont originate in the tropical lattitudes they are not known as "tropical cyclones" I hope I am making some sense here, basically a cyclone is a low pressure system as opposed to a high pressure system being called an anitcyclone. From memory a tropical low is not categorised into a tropical cyclone until the central pressure falls below 1000hectopascals and the sustained wind speed near the centre of the depression is above 30kts.

This is an example of a tropical cyclone in the southern lattitudes.

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDW24100.txt

This is current for WA and could possibly be devastating if it makes landfall near a populated community.

check the latest satellite information on this system compared to the East coast.

http://www.bom.gov.au/gms/IDE00035.latest.shtml

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

When I was living up on the Cape, my friends property had the local Cyclone shelter. A besser brick building with a low profile roof and tiny windows. I guess they would have similar community shelters in Karratha and Dampier. No way would I stay in a regular house with winds of up to 260 km per hour predicted.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Back in the late 60's when I was about 10 years old we were having Family Christmas Holidays at a caravan park in Cairns when a cyclone was coming. The police drove around with loudspeakers telling tourists to leave!

As the winds were increasing we ripped the tent & annexe down fast, threw it into the caravan and headed south like thousands of others.

When we arrived at a Rockhampton Caravan park it was filling fast with the same people that we saw at the Cairns Caravan Park. They did their best to fit us all in.

About an hour later we were settled in with the tent & annexe up again. During that night (unkown to all of us) the cyclone moved back out to sea from Cairns, came down the coast and got us at Rockhampton the next day!!!!!

And in the midst of the cyclone fishermen were rushing to get out to the end of the pier to catch all the Tailor as they swam into the safer water!!!!

It was pretty rough but we survived without damage. The tent & annexe were put back into the caravan, the caravan was anchored down with tons of ropes and we sat it out for about 4 hours in the Rec room with heaps of other people.

Nasty stuff them cyclones from what I remember! But the wierd memory I have is the fishermen risking their lives to catch those Tailor!!!!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I remember people riding their surfboards at Redcliffe and Shorncliffe during a cyclone. These towns are well sheltered in Moreton Bay and never have a swell.
My worst extreme weather was in 1981 when Brighton was hit with a hailstorm. It started with hail the size of golfballs in the front yard, we ran to look out over the backyard and the hail was the size of softballs. Then we were watching hailstones not much smaller than basketballs. No kidding, they weren't solid blocks of ice though, you could tell they were conglomerates by the way they shattered when they hit. My Maths teacher down the road found his chickens stripped of their feathers, dead. VW's had flat roofs. Interior walls of houses were swollen with water and ice. Horses had massive bruises on their backs. Sir Joh even came out to declare it a natural disaster. What an experience.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

We had our Cat 3 cyclone experience here last year (some of you will remember that) I hope I dont have to repeat it this Cyclone season