Queensland, still struggling to recover from record flooding, is facing a new (possibly devastating) threat.
Updated 2 hours 23 minutes ago
Cyclone Yasi sits over the Pacific Ocean en route to the north Queensland coast, January 31, 2011. (www.goes.noaa.gov)
Cyclone Yasi is expected to be larger and more intense than 2006's devastating Cyclone Larry when it slams into the north Queensland coast some time tomorrow night.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh delivered the stark assessment as she warned residents that today was their last chance to abandon homes in low-lying suburbs in the path of the possible high category four system.
The cyclone is expected to pack winds of up to 280 kilometres per hour when it hits the coast somewhere between Cairns and Innisfail at about 1:00am AEST on Thursday.
"This is not only now tracking as more intense than Cyclone Larry, it is significantly larger than Cyclone Larry," Ms Bligh told a press conference today.
If there's any consolation, most people haven't yet made necessary repairs to their flooded out homes, so efforts are likely not wasted. The system is expected to bring broad, heavy rain and a strong storm surge to the coast between Cairns and Innisvale. The storm is described as twice as large as 'Larry' - (2006), and more intense.
Here's Jeff Masters at Weather Underground -
Queensland is in serious danger of renewed extreme flooding this week from Tropical Cyclone Yasi. Yasi has intensified to a Category 2 storm with 105 mph winds, and is undergoing a period of rapid intensification that is expected to take it to Category 4 strength. Yasi is expected to hit Queensland on Wednesday, probably as a major Category 3 or stronger storm. In addition the storm's damaging winds and storm surge, Yasi will bring torrential rains. The GFS model is predicting that Yasi will dump 5 - 10 inches of rain over a large swath of Queensland, which would likely cause destructive flooding.
For the record, I have never seen a tracking forecast (5 day) placing a storm so far inland as this.
Insane.