NZFF

Just been talking to a mate who works at Darwin airport....my God....this typhoon thats just about too hit is scarey. Almost 600km across, and getting bigger They (met guys) think it may get as far as Mt Isa before weakening....as destructive as Katrina. As if they havent had enough.
I wont complain about the earthquakes anymore.

The air pressure is 960hPa but is predicted to fall in to 938hPa late tomorrow predicts Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).
This thing is a monster.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTPu-y5VIuw

It gets worse!!! Now a Cat 5.

At 4:00 am EST Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, Category 5 was estimated to be
650 kilometres east northeast of Cairns and 650 kilometres northeast of
Townsville moving west southwest at 30 kilometres per hour.


Details of Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi at 4:00 am EST:
.Centre located near...... 15.7 degrees South 151.7 degrees East
.Location accuracy........ within 20 kilometres
.Recent movement.......... towards the west southwest at 30 kilometres per hour
.Wind gusts near centre... 295 kilometres per hour
.Severity category........ 5
.Central pressure......... 924 hectoPascals

SEVERE TC YASI IS A LARGE AND VERY POWERFUL TROPICAL CYCLONE AND POSES AN
EXTREMELY SERIOUS THREAT TO LIFE AND PROPERTY WITHIN THE WARNING AREA,
ESPECIALLY BETWEEN PORT DOUGLAS AND TOWNSVILLE.

THIS IMPACT IS LIKELY TO BE MORE LIFE THREATENING THAN ANY EXPERIENCED DURING
RECENT GENERATIONS.The Cyclone has now reached CATEGORY 5 and will continue to move in a
west-southwesterly direction during today.

Coastal residents within the warning, and particularly between Port Douglas and
Townsville are specifically warned of an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS sea level rise
[i.e. storm tide] as the cyclone approaches and crosses the coast. The sea is
likely to steadily rise up to a level which will be VERY DANGEROUSLY above the
normal tide, with EXTREMELY DAMAGING WAVES, strong currents and flooding of
low-lying areas extending some way inland. People living in areas likely to be
affected by this flooding should take measures to protect their property as much
as possible, and be prepared to follow instructions regarding evacuation of the
area if advised to do so by authorities.

DAMAGING WINDS with gusts to 90 km/hr are expected to develop on coastal islands
later this morning, then extend onto the coast during the day, and further
inland across the northern tropical interior overnight.

Between Cooktown and Ingham these winds will become DESTRUCTIVE with gusts in
excess of 125km/hr during the afternoon and VERY DESTRUCTIVE with gusts above
280 km/hr between Port Douglas and Cardwell during the evening as the cyclone
approaches. These VERY DESTRUCTIVE winds can also occur on the seaward side of
hills to the north of the cyclone and are also forecast to reach the Atherton
Tablelands.

Port Douglas is now officially the worst place in the world to be right now.
Good luck to them our thoughts are with them

Pete

Thanks Pete.....my god, i just saw a nasa pic of it.....scary stuff.

Yes scary stuff - would make some interesting real world weather flying in FS from Cairns in a few hours!

I just updated my blog with a post about Yasi- you should see the screenie of the Cairns TAF. It's insane!

Will be sad to see the Cairns area get so battered, when I was over there October it was just beautiful:

Check out Google Earth and turn on the weather,you can follow it real time. Very scary though . Poor Aussies, first the Cricket, then the brisbane river and now this. Good luck to them all !

Ouch, just read about gusts of 140knots at Cairns. im thinkng VATSIM, circuits at Cairns all night!! aparrently winds of upto 300kms/h!!! that means you could potentially have a 250knt GS in a 152!!

Have been following off coast weather stations and a place called Willis Island registered 185k two hours ago-last readings have been 0k-must have blown the old anemometor down.Got to Australian Bureau of Meteorology and click on Queensland.

I'm in Queensland at the moment (luckily not in the path of the storm). Hopefully it's all gonna be ok, surf is pumping here at the moment.

Funny emails still circulating after the floods. warning coarse language

woops fixed

I have family in Cairns, luckily up the hills a bit, but they are in lockdown at home waiting for it to hit.

Fauville wrote:

QUOTE (Fauville @ Feb 2 2011, 09:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have family in Cairns, luckily up the hills a bit, but they are in lockdown at home waiting for it to hit.

I hope it isnt too bad for them, and the house is till in tact tomorrow morning mate.

I have been tuned into TV Channel 7 Brisbane and it is giving a running commentary as it happens about 11.30 NZ time they had live pics from a big Bauxite carrier holding head into the weather 100 miles south of the cyclone centre every one very calm on board and saying that the ship was built to handle huge seas like they were in the guy said they quite often get huge seas running between the top of oz and bottom of NZ apparently it is the ship that runs Bauxite to Bluff

A freind from here "Hughes500Fan" lives in Innisfail which is right in the firing line, his dad is a helicopter operator and has moved his choppers 4 1/2 hours away towards Mt Isa. They have locked down the hangar because the last big cyclone it brought down the hangar and wrote off one heli.
Look forward to an update Liam, hope you guys are safe

cheers
Jamie

pacblue wrote:

QUOTE (pacblue @ Feb 2 2011, 02:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ouch, just read about gusts of 140knots at Cairns. im thinkng VATSIM, circuits at Cairns all night!! aparrently winds of upto 300kms/h!!! that means you could potentially have a 250knt GS in a 152!!

Not wanting to detract from how serious this is......i tried to fly with a 150 knot headwind (sim).....you can hover a 767

Splitpin wrote:

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Feb 3 2011, 07:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not wanting to detract from how serious this is......i tried to fly with a 150 knot headwind (sim).....you can hover a 767

Thought about real world weather, but. . .