http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225841793957

So far no evacuations on northern GBR islands, although day trips to reef today were cancelled out of Cairns with expected winds of 35knots.

Hang onto your hat, kiddo.

I'll be glad if I can hang onto my roof, Bokhara, this is currently a Category 4. Seriously, its a long way off, latest estimates are that it may make landfall somewhere between Bowen and Gladstone by the weekend, as you know, far south of Cairns but with a cyclone who knows.

I just saw on ABC TV news a few interviews with international tourists being evacuated from Heron, talk about disgruntled. You wouldn't think this was done for their own safety, and after all, they've taken the risk of coming in cyclone season.
Or, they think, as one recent poster here suggested, central/southern Queensland coast is somehow immune to cyclones.

I'll let my friends in Bundaberg & Maryborough know it wasn't a cyclone that uprooted their palm trees & carried a shed roof across the road into a paddock, a few years ago.

My Noosa friend will be relieved to know the torrential rains & ferocious winds that lash the sunshine coast aren't tails of cyclones, too.

Hope you all stay safe and dry Pat. Just can't control Mother Nature can we?

Having been through many cyclones if I was on Heron Island I would be head-tailing it out of there quick smart. I have just read that at 4AM this cyclone had a central
pressure 952 hPa and was located over the north-east Coral Sea. Old timers were always more interested in the central pressure than anything else and 952 hPa is a very low pressure and in fact I am surprised its a catagory 3 only. Cyclone Tracy hit with a pressure of 950 hPa but had very strong winds so the pressure is not always an indication of the power of the storm. No cyclone/ hurricane is anything to be taken lightly. Lets hope it just keeps going south till it runs out of steam and just dumps heaps of water on the Murray River catchment areas.

Not to mention, Bokhara, the tragic drowning today of the young Sydney lifesaver at the Australian Surf Life Saving Championship as far south as the Gold Coast, due to rough surf conditions brought about by Cyclone Ului.

Anyway, Ului now downgraded to Category 2, hope it stays that way, due to make landfall between about Proserpine and Cardwell on Sunday, so right over the Whitsundays if it stays on course.

Thanks Toucan, apart from rough seas with cancelled reef trips, Cairns and Port Douglas areas are too far north to be affected much by this one.

I just saw that on the news Pat, a very sad day indeed.

That is very sad about the lifesaver Pat.

I'm glad, however, that your area is not being wildly affected.

There is an area of the upper gulf coast of Texas that we visit every year for birding. The last several years have been devastating for the area because of hurricanes. There were areas that just looked like war zones on the Bolivar Peninsula, and no matter how it looked on TV, seeing it in person is quite sobering. The power of these storms is extraordinary.

Indeed, Pat. His family is friends with my neighbours & one of their kids would have been on that trip, but he broke his ankle last week. A lucky break, perhaps.

ivenotbeeneverywhere, While us old timers are very interested in the central pressure it is the gradient which is of most importance. If the nearest high pressure has 1005 hPa then 990 hPa is not very deep but if it has 1025 then it is a lot more significant. The distance between the centres is also of importance. Some deep cyclones are small and some are large; there are just so many variables.

Should have added that most resorts are to be back to normal business by the end of this week.

We are planning a trip to Cairns and area for April 11-16. Will this be after Cyclone season?

Cyclones aren't unknown in April, but very unlikely. We've had nothing but solid rain for day after day in Cairns, but no cyclonic winds, the forecast I'm looking at shows an improvement on 10th April, which is as far as it goes, mostly cloudy, 23C-30C and 16-21 km/h wind speed which isn't bad at all.

As we have already mmoved into an autumn pattern it is unlikely that any more cyclones will occur is eastern Australia this season.