East Coast Austrailia Cyclone

[Ken Johnson]

Y'all ok? looks like a pretty nasty blow. Rippin right down the coast!

[Moose]

No Aussie report ? Heard this is a strong massive storm.

[Moose]

http://www.weather.com/news/news/australia-cyclone-lam-marcia

[Moose]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/20/387738771/twin-cyclones-slam-australias-north-coasts

[Sandy Loam]

Yes, that Queensland cyclone was all over the news in the United States today. I heard about it twice. Do any Queenslanders out there have any comments or stories to tell?

(Perhaps they have no electricity so can't respond)

[Daryl]

Thanks for your concern everyone...

Check out the 'Southern Summer' thread as there is a bit of commentary in it.

FYI, the QLD Cyclone developed very rapidly into a CAT5 system and then hit the Central Queensland coast. It tracked over the top of two reasonably populated areas (Yeppoon and Rockhampton), causing a lot of damage. We are still yet to see full reports on the damage, but it looked pretty bad on the news broadcast.

The Ex-Cyclone has now lost intensity and is a strong low pressure system which is currently impacting on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane with lots of rain and wind, not at cyclonic wind levels but still able to cause some significant damage.

Central QLD IPS members Ross and Carol Mylrea took a direct hit in Rockhampton, and their magnificent garden will have been significantly damaged by this storm.

Daryl

[tropicbreeze]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/20/387738771/twin-cyclones-slam-australias-north-coasts

You really have to laugh at some of these media reports. When you think about it, things you don't know about that you see in news reports from elsewhere in the world probably have the same level of accuracy and attention to detail.

[Dave-Vero]

Category 5 damage can look like a gigantic tornado. A study that reconstructed wind from damage after 1992's hurricane Andrew south of Miami showed that there were localized areas of intense damage, and some spots were hit twice, with wind coming from different directions.

One of the tropical hammocks (short forest) in a badly-hit area was pretty much flattened. I don't think a single tree trunk remained intact.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden was north of the worst. A lot of palms were knocked over, irrigation system (which was old) was ruined, and they were without water for a while, which made it impossible to water salt-flooded plants and irrigate all the others in the dry spell that followed the storm.

[tropicbreeze]

It's not unusual to have tornados embedded in cyclones so you can get isolated areas of more severe damage. If the eye passes overhead you initially get winds from one direction, a calmer period within the eye and then winds from the opposite direction when the eye has passed. Also speed of movement of the system and direction of the movement will give differences in relative wind speeds within the system.

Saltwater intrusion is a bit of a mixed bag. Freshwater floats on salt water. Waves will cause mixing. Usually in the approach of a cyclone the ground is saturated with fresh water and storm surge can go over it without affecting salinity in the soil. Also ground surface run off, which is fresh water, becomes the front part of the storm surge. But as I said, it can be a mixed bag, circumstances can be highly variable. Where I lived previously my place was inundated by storm surge but the torrential rain at the time kept it all freshwater. The storm surge dissipated before there was any significant mixing with no ill effect from salinity. There were more problems from salinity in fine windy weather.

[Dave-Vero]

Wind is a real problem for us. We get strong sea breezes from late winter into spring, which combined with dry weather will shut down some of the native species. I suspect that my county has live oak forest very close to the beach because stone reefs break up the surf, while deeper water nearshore north of us makes for bigger waves and more salt spray.

Surfing websites are showing photos and videos of the cyclone's swell.

Miami's 1992 hurricane revealed a lot of shoddy construction. In areas with the worst wind, even good construction failed. Fortunately, there were few, if any fatalities from the storm itself. Cleanup and rebuilding wasn't so good, nor were nervous people with guns.

A lot of information has developed about construction and urban landscapes. Notably, John Dowe examined wind resistance in palms, spending some time at Miami's Montgomery Botanical Center, which had a lot of information on damage from Wilma of 2005, not a strong storm, but one whose wind came mostly from inland, which is unusual. Sabal and Livistona tend to be highly wind resistant. Syagrus botryophora is among the worst.

With trees, it turns out that the benefit of trees absorbing wind energy exceed the problems from broken stems and debris. With exceptions. Pithecellobium dulce, a big beautiful but weak shade tree from Pacific Central America and Mexico, was once popular but long ago disappeared.

[Tyrone]

Just reading that many farmers face ruin in the Yepoon area. They've had destruction of 100% in some areas. One Macadamia farmer lost all of his 2000 50yr old trees. He's too old to bother restarting and that ends his plan of giving the farm to his daughter. He's just going to burn it all. Real sad.