I took a wander down to Taylor Point today. With the recent rains the track’s a little muddy. I noted one person apparently didn’t fancy walking, and tried to drive their 4WD a little further than the usual parking area.
4WD "parked" at Taylor Point
An attempt to get the vehicle out by shoving a log under the front right wheel had apparently failed. I assume the driver had gone to find someone with another 4WD and a tow rope.
Tropical Cyclone Ului is starting to make the news as it moves westward into the Coral Sea.The Bureau of Meteorology doesn’t have maps up yet as it’s so far out, but the US Navy has a forecast track map. Here’s the most recent:
TC Ului track map
The end of the predicted path (the pink bit) is for 19 March, so even if it does hit the Queensland coast it won’t be for a while yet. Next weekend, which I’m making a long weekend by taking Monday off, might be interesting – though my possible plan of renting a convertible and doing some touring with the top down may not be such a good idea.
Taylor Point
It has been a wet week following Cyclone Olga last Sunday, with 254mm recorded at the airport. Yesterday was particularly wet, and I only ventured out to get some bread. Despite consulting the radar to try to pick a gap in the rain, I got caught in a downpour on the way back. It was, however, nice to see some heavy wet season rain.
Today we’re seeing a bit of sunshine and a fair bit of blue sky, so I went for a wander around Taylor Point. King tides occur at this time of year, and a 3.44 meter high was due at 10:08. Around at Taylor Point the track was cut by the water, and the beaches were totally submerged. The coconut palms at the end of the track were experiencing more erosion around their bases, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two fall in the not too distant future.
There’s something very right about crashing in a beachside cafe with a cappuccino and a piece of cake while the radio plays a cyclone warning for the area. It’s very Far North Queensland I guess.
Cyclone Olga is passing to the north, and looks like it will cross between Cape Tribulation and Cooktown. Judging by the radar, the center is about 98km north northeast of me at present. It is, of course, wet and gray here in Trinity Beach, and the waves are a little higher than usual. I didn’t see any kids surfing, as I have in other low level cyclones, though that may be because the waves still aren’t big enough to make it worthwhile. The winds are a little gusty at times, though the BOM is only reporting 30-50km/hr winds between here and Low Isles at the moment. It forecasts destructive winds north of Port Douglas.
Yawn. Oh well, no four day weekend for me.
BOM's predicted course of TC Olga
Tropical Cyclone Olga has formed off the FNQ coast and is predicted to cross in between Cairns and Port Douglas as a Category 2 on Monday. The shops are very busy today, with a few shelves now bare. Woolworths at Smithfield seems to have had a run on baked beans. I guess baked beans might be a fitting meal when a big wind is approaching. Long life milk also seems to have been popular.
Bunnings seems to be doing a good trade in batteries and torches at the moment. I saw staff unpacking Dolphin brand torches when I was there, and I saw people grabbing multiple batteries and torches. I was actually there to buy a new hand trolley for carting water from the beach for my aquariums, but did grab a battery for my large torch. I also grabbed a pot and some potting mix for my newest garden addition, a Rainforest Gem finger lime.
The generator I bought last cyclone season had a test run a couple of weeks ago when we had a series of blackouts one Sunday. If the power goes out, the generator will run the aquarium and my TV, as well as a battery charger so I can run the tanks with a little less noise at night.
The rest of this weekend will be spent watching cricket and doing housework as previously planned, but will now include a tidy up of the patio to make sure nothing goes flying around.
So it looks like it will be an interesting few days around Australia Day. It’s possible that we’ll have a four day long weekend due to the cyclone, and have a bit of a clean up to do on Tuesday. If the track prediction proves accurate, the eye may extend over Cairns, which will be an interesting experience.
Update (23:00 Saturday): It looks like Olga is impatient, and may cross the coast some time late afternoon or early evening on Sunday. It’s rapid movement gives it less time to intensify, so hopefully it will be big enough to be interesting but small enough not to do any damage.
Update (08:15 Sunday): Sigh… It looks like Olga’s going to visit Cooktown instead of Cairns. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. We’ll have a wet and windy day, but nothing terribly interesting.
Radar image of TC Hamish at 14:40
Tropical Cyclone Hamish, currently a Category 2 cyclone, has formed off the FNQ coast and currently lies 175km east north-east of Cooktown. It’s forecast to move south down the coast before heading out to sea. It is not expected to cross the coast.
As you can see on the right, Hamish is delivering the its of his moisture on the southern side of the eye, and we’re getting a bit of a dumping here in Cairns. Winds are a little gusty but nothing too bad as yet.
I suspect Hamish will pass without incident, but I decided to play it safe with the aquariums – they now have a generator to keep the filters running. For $149 it’s a nice to know I’ll be able to keep the tanks running. The generator provides 700 watts, so it should run all the filters and pumps with a little to spare. I don’t think the 300 watt metal halide light will be an option, but the TV should be.
The only problem I see is the noise. It says it puts out 91dB, which is about the same, unsurprisingly, as a lawnmower. A 55dB model was going to be $1000, and I didn’t think it worthwhile for something that will only get run for a couple of days once every year or two. If the power does go, I’ll run the filters off battery power overnight, and recharge the battery using the generator during the day.
The generator will also be useful on those occasions when, despite nice weather, Ergon’s supply vanishes. I’ll forgive them during a cyclone, but at other times it’s a bit annoying. When I set up my account for the new house the Ergon sales person asked me if there was anyone with a life threatening condition that required power to run equipment. I asked if my fish counted, but they said no.
After a brief wander down to the beach, I came back and found it starting to rain just as I came to the apartment. I decided to have a look at the Bureau of Meteorology’s Saddle Mountain radar (it’s the little white knob on top of the hill behind Smithfield) for the first time in quite a while. The page has been updated quite a bit, and now has some really nice functions.
The map can now be customised to show roads, railways, rivers and lakes, catchment areas, and temperature and wind readings from the BOM’s stations. If you hover your mouse over one of the weather stations, more measurements appear in a separate box to the right. There’s now a 512km radar in addition to the 128km and 256km. The 512km shows most of Cape York, from Weipa and Lockhardt River in the north to Hamilton Island in the south, and across to Normanton in the west.
The Cairns radar is at http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR193.loop.shtml#skip
C’mon cyclone season!
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