Friday 28 January 2011- four weeks into the new decade and the eastern quarter of this country may be thinking, "When is this going to end?"
Massive flooding in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria (and I'm not forgetting the people in the Gascoyne Region of WA either) has been an ongoing event since just around Christmas.
Now it would seem it may be our turn in the northern part of Queensland. We have had a couple of major rain events and lucked out on a couple of others as the systems skittered past without a major deluge. Anthony (the cyclone, not Cleopatra's consort) seems to be heading our way (again).
The system headed away from us toward Vanuatu or Noumea last week as a cyclone and dissipated to a tropical low pressure system as it travelled eastward. Today; however, Anthony did an about-face and has started to make for our shores.
Upgraded to a Category1 cyclone and forecast to intensify to a "2" or possibly "3" before landfall, I guess it's time to ensure all of the cyclone preparations are in order:
Cyclone kit prepared- check
Tarps and ropes ready- check
Car fuelled up- check
Mobile phones charged- check
Important documents in waterproof container- check
Gutters and downpipes cleared- check (Thanks Graeme)
Just need to fill some large containers with water, move some furniture off the deck and we should be "right as rain" as they say.
The worrying thing about all of this is that there is another system brewing out near Fiji which is predicted to follow hot on the heels of Anthony. A much larger, more intense system which should be on our doorstep next Thursday- category 4 or 5. Current modelling shows it coming to land just to the south of us. Here's hoping the modelling is wrong and it heads for the Galapagos.
Cheers- ride safe
BoaB
2 comments:
As you say lets hope the modelling is wrong - keep safe.
Thanks Trevor- latest update @ 05:00 this morning shows the first system coming to land to our south. Given that it is still +800km to our east northeast, that track could vary.
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