Tropical Cyclone Yasi hits Queensland, Australia - 02/03/11 03:18 PM
Tropical Cyclone Yasi roared inland over Queensland, Australia at 12:30am local time on Thursday as a strengthening Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds and a 930 mb central pressure. The cyclone missed the most populous cities on the coast, Cairns and Townsville, which experienced wind gusts to about 60 mph. Undoubtedly, tremendous wind damage occurred in the small towns of Tully, Mission Beach, and Bingal Bay where the eye passed. A storm surge of 5 meters (16 feet) was observed at Cardwell, and 3 meters (10 feet) at Clump Point. Townsville received a 2.5 meter storm surge that damaged some sea walls. This was the highest storm surge observed since 1971 there.
Figure 2. Pressure readings from Clump Point on the Queensland, Australia coast during passage of Yasi bottomed out at 930 mb as the storm passed overhead. Image credit: Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
According to an email I received from Blair Trewin of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, "Yasi is almost certainly the most intense landfall in Queensland since at least 1918, and possibly since 1899. In 1918 there were two cyclones (at Mackay and Innisfail) with measured pressures in the upper 920s/low 930s but it is quite plausible that the minimum central pressures were lower than that. The 1899 (Mahina/Bathurst Bay) cyclone had a measured pressure (ship near shore) of 914 mb." However, the number of major tropical cyclones along the Queensland coast has declined since the 1870s, according to recent paper by Callaghan and Power (2010). They found that "the number of severe TCs making land-fall over eastern Australia declined from about 0.45 TCs/year in the early 1870s to about 0.17 TCs/year in recent times-a 62% decline. This decline can be partially explained by a weakening of the Walker Circulation, and a natural shift towards a more El Ni�o-dominated era. The extent to which global warming might be also be partially responsible for the decline in land-falls-if it is at all-is unknown."
References
Callaghan, J. and S. Power, (2010): Variability and decline in the number of severe tropical cyclones making land-fall over eastern Australia since the late nineteenth century, Climate Dynamics. DOI: 10.1007/s00382-010-0883-2
Figure 3. Tropical Cyclone Yasi at 03:35 UTC February 2, 2011, as seen by NASA's Aqua satellite.
Jeff Masters
Figure 2. Pressure readings from Clump Point on the Queensland, Australia coast during passage of Yasi bottomed out at 930 mb as the storm passed overhead. Image credit: Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
According to an email I received from Blair Trewin of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, "Yasi is almost certainly the most intense landfall in Queensland since at least 1918, and possibly since 1899. In 1918 there were two cyclones (at Mackay and Innisfail) with measured pressures in the upper 920s/low 930s but it is quite plausible that the minimum central pressures were lower than that. The 1899 (Mahina/Bathurst Bay) cyclone had a measured pressure (ship near shore) of 914 mb." However, the number of major tropical cyclones along the Queensland coast has declined since the 1870s, according to recent paper by Callaghan and Power (2010). They found that "the number of severe TCs making land-fall over eastern Australia declined from about 0.45 TCs/year in the early 1870s to about 0.17 TCs/year in recent times-a 62% decline. This decline can be partially explained by a weakening of the Walker Circulation, and a natural shift towards a more El Ni�o-dominated era. The extent to which global warming might be also be partially responsible for the decline in land-falls-if it is at all-is unknown."
References
Callaghan, J. and S. Power, (2010): Variability and decline in the number of severe tropical cyclones making land-fall over eastern Australia since the late nineteenth century, Climate Dynamics. DOI: 10.1007/s00382-010-0883-2
Figure 3. Tropical Cyclone Yasi at 03:35 UTC February 2, 2011, as seen by NASA's Aqua satellite.
Jeff Masters