Cyclone Laurence
Kimberley on red alert as cyclone approaches
Cyclone Laurence is bearing down on the northern Western Australia coast, bringing with it winds of up to 285 kilometres per hour [175 mph].
The small but intense cyclone has been upgraded to a category 5 system and is located 55 kilometres south-west of Kuri Bay and 170 kilometres north-north-east of Derby.
The cyclone is just 30 kilometres off the mainland and is expected to cross the coast by nightfall.
It has already buffeted the small pearling community of Kuri Bay and is threatening the iron ore operations of Cockatoo and Koolan islands where staff have relocated to a cyclone shelter.
In addition to the bushfires in the South, Australia is faced with a nasty Cyclone season when there is an active El Niño. The hurricane force winds only extend out about 35 miles and the tropical storm force winds a little more that 100 miles, so this is more of a supersized tornado, but it is generating major rainfall in firehose bursts in the bands.
2 comments
Have they gotten the locusts yet? Gee….here we thought CA was world capital of natural disasters of late…
.-= last blog ..The Vultures Were Circling =-.
This thing went from nothing to Category 3 in a day, and continued strengthening. This the Northwest coast of Australia.
Climate change has not been kind to the Southern Hemisphere.