Cyclone Hamish
 

Queensland, the state I live in, is being menaced by a cyclone which is presently a catagory 4 storm.

The scarey thing about this storm is how far south it's come. It's actually only a few hundred kilometres north of where I live. It's probably not going to cross the coast, but considering how unpredictable it's been so far, I don't think anyone is going to stop being on alert till it's completely petered out.

If you're interested, I live just south of Brisbane and you can see the images of the cyclone here.

Damn. I hope it doesn't hit where you are Aliantha.

I've never been around a cyclone. Is it anything like a hurricane? We get hurricanes here. And tornadoes.

Cyclones are the same type of storm as hurricanes but usually not as big. They do dump a lot of water though, and winds in this one I've mentioned are up to 250km/hour.

It's not likely to hit where we live, but when it degenerates into a low it'll probably cause some flooding. Hopefully we'll just get the beautiful rain where we live. We can do without the flood.

Wow, that is a bit to close for comfort Ali. Which way is it moving? Since ours generally move from R to L and NW, I would think your move L to R and SE? Is that right?

This one is unusual in that it hasn't come any closer to the coast. That's due in part to an intense high pressure system down south which is pushing against it so it's not turning but keeping a relatively straight course. They expect it to go out to sea slightly, lose intensity and then come back to land as a low pressure system with strong winds and lots of rain.

It's unpredictable at the moment though. Yesterday they suggested it would have dropped to a cat 3/2 by now. They were wrong.

I found this while looking for the track. There are a bunch of other sites, but this one seemed to be the easiest to read.
http://weather.ninemsn.com.au/httpda...ld_640x480.jpg

I believe that is Aussie time

Good work classic. Where would we be without you? ;)

probably more hopeful and less frustrated :)

Oh I definitely could not be more hopeful about most things than I am now. :)

And you definitely have nothing to do with the things that frustrate me. lol

Hamish is now catagory 3, so that's good news for coastal residents. Hopefully it's all downhill for him from here.

Good to hear, Ali. I hope you and your family stay safe.

We get worried every year about hurricanes, because Savannah is right in the path they usually take. For some reason though, they always bypass us. We do get buckets of rain and high winds sometimes, but only once in all the time I've lived here has a hurricane actually hit. *keeps fingers crossed*

Glad to hear this one has calmed down some. Keep us updated. I'll be keeping fingers crossed for you too. :)

Hamish has dissipated now. It's a tropical low and headed back up the coast. We've had strong winds and a lot of beaches have been eroded badly, but no major damage to property really. One bloke that lives on a beachfront property has lost a couple of metres of his yard though. It'll probably come back over time though.

We didn't even end up getting much rain. Enough to water the plants and top up the tanks, but that's about it. Good enough I guess, but it would have been nice to get a bit more.

Did you get out and do any surfing?

lol....nope, as you bloody well must know.