Key events36m agoNearly 60,000 households and businesses without power55m agoHeavy rainfall to hit parts of Queensland2h agoSydney temperatures could reach as high as 40C2h agoCyclone wind gusts peaked at 140km/h2h agoEmma McKeon named Young Australian of the Year3h agoWelcomeFilters BETAKey events (6)Townsville (14)Queensland (11)Bureau of Meteorology (6)Katy Gallagher (4)ABC News Breakfast (4)3m ago16.57 EST
Andrew Messenger
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) clocked Tropical Cyclone Kirrily with wind gusts up to 143 km/h offshore.
Kirrily was upgraded to severe cyclone status on Thursday but dropped back down to category two later in the evening. Top speeds had dropped to about 107 km/h at Alva Beach by the time it made landfall.
Around Townsville the strongest gust was about 91 km/h.
Senior meteorologist at the BoM Miriam Bradbury told Guardian Australia what was worth noting was “even beyond those top wind gusts, the average winds we were seeing across that period were very, very strong over a long period of time”.
That’s really what contributed to the sort of widespread trees and tree limbs that we’ve seen downed across Townsville, [and] the power outages.
We did see some moderate rainfall, the highest total was 176 mm at Paluma, which is just to the north of Townsville. So some moderate to high falls, but it was more about the winds with this cyclone.
The cyclone decayed overnight and is now a tropical low, sitting to the west of Townsville.
It is now expected to head west into the Northern Territory. There are still warnings current across large parts of the interior and western Queensland for heavy to intense rain and possible damaging winds.
We do also have flood watches covering most parts of northern Queensland and it’s possible many of those areas could be upgraded to flood warnings over the coming hours and days, as rain continues to move downstream.
9m ago16.51 EST
Eden Gillespie
Robyn Johnstone is one of the 40,000 Townsville residents that woke up without power on Friday morning.
Johnstone lives in the Townsville suburb of Hermit Park and says she’s thankful she only lost a small tree to Cyclone Kirrily.
On a drive through her neighbourhood on Friday morning, Johnstone surveyed the damage, observing fallen branches and debris littering the roads.
The cyclone sounded like a ghost howling. It was pretty windy. There was lots of rain.
At 28 years of age, Johnstone has lived through Cyclone Yasi in 2011 and the 2019 floods. She says her community is feeling pretty optimistic even with heavy rainfall and strong winds forecast.
People [up here] are pretty resilient. I think a lot of people just think the worst of it is gone.
14m ago16.46 EST
To recap, no further advice will be issued by the Bureau of Meteorology as ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily has been downgraded to a tropical low.
There have been mixed reports of when the cyclone hit Townsville, but according to the Bureau of Meteorology it was downgraded from a category three…
2024-01-25 16:51:11
Post from www.theguardian.com
