The ABC reports that – “Category five Cyclone Yasi has knocked out….the weather bureau’s radar and wind..” instruments.
I note that the Willis Island observations page shows no wind obs for 4 days.
Other nearby reefs – for example Holmes and The 100mg of this Jelly produces fast comes about, as with the perfect measure of sexual incitement, it creates comes about inside no time (normally 30 minutes). discount viagra The latter cashes in on their branding to charge a higher price than pdxcommercial.com canada viagra cheap tablets. viagra is available at lower rates despite offering the same results. Sexual issues are seen in adult female viagra uk men of all ages. discount bulk viagra These procedures determine the place of misalignment and the extent of the deformity. Flinders reefs still show all obs recording.
Perhaps someone can explain to me why if aircraft can fly at +3000km per hr – it is beyond the wits of a wealthy nation to have wind meters designed to withstand a sixth of that.
4 days? It shows zero since 8.37am today (presumably meaning that is when it broke). I agree re: wind meters tolerance levels, though.
At least the thermometer, barometer etc are apparently still functioning.
The Willis Is page has been updated – which is nice to see.
Aircraft flying at +3000km/hr?
Que?
Louis – I was ref to aircraft speed records. I know QANTAS does not do it everyday.
The source of the alleged “290 plus” winds remains elusive. How where and when was this measured. I assume a credible source for the authorities to be quoting it, yet none of the weather stations in the vicinity have recorded anything over 180 (Lucinda) so far.
I note that none of the stations in the area have reported since 0230, so perhaps comms are down at present.
Note 5.15am 3rd Feb 11 – Yes Keith – I am asking if Yasi was overhyped to some extent yesterday by all our official sources, BoM, Govt and media. I notice the USN Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) have not run wind numbers as high as we have been hearing here.
Looking at the latest current obs (3.30am Qld) at the BoM clickable map.
Townsville windspeed never reached 100km/h and at 3.30 are 89 – gusts reached 135 (1.23-1.30am) and have decr to 119 @ 3.30.
Going north, Lucinda has been hit heavier – as at 3.30am winds 113 gusts 145 down from peak winds 132 gusts 170 @ ~12.30am.
Cairns by 3.30am neither wind speed (46) or gusts (72) reached 100.
Arlington Reef just offshore Cairns has seen stronger winds. Gusts topped 100 between 11pm and 3am and have decr slightly to 89 @ 3.30am.
Obviously we do not yet have winds from the strongest core, can only hope it is v restricted.
The ABC online news article has a range of “Current wind gusts in kph” in a bar on the right – just now (5.06am AEST) Ingham leads with 155km/h. The article also says, – “The weather bureau says there have been reports of wind gusts ranging from 180kph to 290kph in and around Innisfail and the danger is not expected to pass until around dawn.”
So we will see what news the day brings and our thoughts and best wishes are with the affected communities.
Looks from earliest reports (Courier Mail and The Oz) damage might be less than feared and so far no reports on loss of life and Yasi has been downgraded to Cat 3
I understand there is a difference between how Aust grades its cyclones and how the US do it; can anyone comment on that?
Now downgraded to cat 2
Anthony Watts has a neat little comparison showing the two hurricane scales in tables side by side.
The strongest wind gust I have seen in DATA is the 180 at Lucinda. Way short of this 295 bandied around – which I assume was always from modeling. I notice the much vaunted storm surge was mercifully much weaker than predicted too. All in all there was much hyping of Yasi yesterday by Govt & media and even this morning – I just heard Karl on Ch9 Today ref to “unprecedented”. Unlikely Karl.
Warwick thanks for that; I picked up this article in The Oz yesterday from Jo Nova’s site
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/queenslands-cycles-of-havoc/story-e6frg6z6-1225998344719
Jonathan Nott is an expert on the incidence of super cyclones. By analysing ridges of broken coral pushed ashore by storm surges, he has catalogued the incidence of super-cyclones over the past 5000 years.
In a paper published in the scientific journal, Nature in 2001 his research shows the frequency of super-cyclones is an order of magnitude higher than previously thought.
Nott’s work puts into perspective current debate about whether climate change is responsible for the extreme weather events in Queensland.
…
What the longer term records show, however, is that the frequency of extreme cyclones follow a predictable long-scale pattern.
“What the record shows is we go through extended periods, hundreds of years, of high activity and extended periods of little activity,” Nott says.
“The past 100 to 150 years has been very quiet in Queensland in terms of what happened in the past. The couple of hundred years prior to that were very active.”
…
There’s a fair bit on him on google but can’t find his paper
here’s the abstract www.nature.com/nature/journal/v413/n6855/abs/413508a0.html
you have to log in to see the paper in total
Roger Pielke Jnr has an article about Yasi
rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2011/02/cyclone-yasi-in-context.html
Looks like Cyclone Vance that hit Exmouth a decade ago still has the highest recorded wind strengths…
The Willis equipment was the only apparatus to go through the eye of the cyclone,so it may be a bit unfair to demand flawless performance.. wind speeds increase exponentially as the wall approaches. Who knows if the whole facility wasn’t destroyed by sea-surge and waves?
What if Yasi was ‘only’ Category 4 in its last hour before landfall? Still bloody dangerous. The multi-agency analysis put the cyclone anywhere from 935 down to 902 hPa not long before it crossed onto land. That IS a big beast.
Warwick,
Sometimes I wish QANTAS did :-), but thanks for the clarification.
Warwick asked:
The answer is that an aircraft does not use an anemometer to measure airspeed – it uses a pitot tube. There are no moving parts in pitot tubes, and they are pretty useless at low speeds, i.e. normal wind speeds.
Glad Yasi didn’t cause as much devastation as was feared.
Added 9.30am 4th Feb – Thanks Scottie – yes I agree Nth Qld has been fortunate not to be hit harder and we are all thankful for that.
Re wind speed – In another life I had a yacht and used a little handheld wind gauge – no moving parts from memory just a little plastic thingo ~10cm high with a hole you faced into the wind and took a reading. I assume pitot tubes work in aircraft OK up to cyclonic windspeeds. So I think some cheap device could be devised.
The wind meter has to go to say 300Km/h or to be safe say 400. This is 216 knots Indicated airspeed. Assuming we are close to sea level.
An SR71 at cruise at 80,000 feet is going around 1700 knots TRUE airspeed. Because of the density differences between sea level and 80,000 feet this is an INDICATED airspeed (based on the difference between pitot and static pressure) of 320 knots or so.
Still ought to be possible to build an anemometer that survives this even if it is useless for normal winds of a few knots. Maybe these ought to be put in places like Willis Island and other tropical locations. They could fund it by defunding David Jones and the warmist cabal at the BoM.
Of course if we were a first world country we’d have cyclone hunter aircraft flying over the storm dropping dropsondes with GPS units and we’d get real wind speeds at any points and altitudes we liked. A Super Hornet with some tanker support would be able to do this mission without any significant risk. The fighter pilots might even like to do some real stuff that doesn’t involve training for or actually killing people. Sounds like a good use for a defence force to me.
Added 4 Feb 1pm – Agree Mike – but I do not think there is much of a constituency in the hallowed halls of GovtScience for real-world data gathering – models are so much easier. And the Govt bosses seem to like the output. There should be a low level air-photo survey of affected areas too – would stand as a baseline record.