Thousands take shelter as cyclone Debbie hits north Australia
Australians in low-laying areas are urged to evacuate their homes as Tropical Cyclone Debbie sweeps the country in what is believed to be the biggest evacuation since 1974.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie in 2017 was the strongest tropical cyclone in the Australian region since Cyclone Quang in 2015. Cyclone Debbie was branded the most dangerous cyclone to impact Queensland since Cyclone Yasi in 2011. Forming as a tropical low on 23 March, the low gradually intensified to a named tropical cyclone on 26 March. After steadily strengthening offshore to a Category 4 system, Debbie eventually made landfall near Airlie Beach, just north of Proserpine, at around 14:00 AEST on 28 March. Afterwards, Debbie rapidly weakened into a tropical low by late on 28 March, but continued to travel south, causing significant damage and flooding in the populous areas of South East Queensland and Northern Rivers. In total, the storm caused A$2.4 billion (US$1.8 billion) in damage and fourteen deaths across Australia, primarily as a result of extreme flooding. This makes Debbie the deadliest cyclone to hit Australia since Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
METEOROLOGICAL STORY
On 22 March 2017, a well-defined but weak area of low pressure developed over the Coral Sea, near the Louisiade Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. Strong wind shear aloft kept accompanying convection poorly organised and displaced west of the surface circulation.[2] With environmental conditions forecast to improve and favour cyclogenesis, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane classified the system as a tropical low.[3] Throughout the following day, decreasing shear enabled convection to wrap around the low;[4] however, convective activity remained largely transient. A mid-level ridge to the east and an approaching trough over the Tasman Sea steered the low generally south.[5] High sea surface temperatures of 29–30 °C (84–86 °F) and excellent dual-channel outflow fueled rapid consolidation on 24 March. This prompted the United States-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) to issue a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert, indicating the system was likely to acquire gale-force winds within 48 hours.[6] A scatterometer pass at 11:56 UTC revealed surface winds up to 75 km/h (45 mph) and subsequent satellite intensity estimates supported gale-intensity; accordingly the JTWC classified the system as Tropical Cyclone 13P by 21:00 UTC. With exceptionally favourable environmental conditions ahead of the storm, the agency noted a high probability for rapid deepening before landfall in Queensland.[7] The BOM followed suit soon thereafter, classifying the system as a Category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian cyclone intensity scale at 00:00 UTC on 25 March. Concurrently, they assigned it the name Debbie.[8]
The cyclone tracked east, developing into a Category 2 cyclone by 26 March. The following day, the cyclone had developed into a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone.[9] On 27 March, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued Tropical Cyclone Advice relating to the cyclone. The bulletin predicted wind gusts of up to 275 km/h (171 mph) were forecast for the core of the cyclone, with destructive winds throughout the cyclone over 125 km/h (78 mph). That evening at 8pm AEST Debbie was upgraded to Category 4, with meteorologists predicting that it would weaken into a Category 1 cyclone before turning south near Mount Coolon and becoming a low pressure system.
Information courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Debbie and TRT World Youtube channel.