Two tropical cyclones form, intensifying off coast
Two tropical cyclones have formed off Australia’s west and east coasts – with one threatening to bring more rain to an already battered region.
Tropical cyclone Alfred near Queensland and tropical cyclone Bianca near Western Australia formed on Sunday night.
At this stage, both are well off their respective state coastlines.
Alfred is slowly intensifying about 900 kilometres east of Cairns in northern Queensland, sitting as a category one in the Coral Sea.
Favourable warm ocean conditions may increase it to category two on Monday morning before it intensifies again to category three on Tuesday.
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Over the next few days, Alfred will move slowly southeast while staying several hundred kilometres off the Queensland coast.
As it does, it may influence the weather on the east coast with stiff south-easterly winds and a few passing showers.
“Strong winds will make for choppy conditions as well as sizeable swell over the Queensland coastal waters throughout the week,” meteorologist Angus Hines said.
Alfred’s exact location at the end of the week is still hard to pin down. Some models suggest it might veer back towards the central or southern Queensland coast.
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This would greatly increase the risk of severe weather in those regions, which are still mopping up after extensive flooding earlier in February.
Hundreds of homes were evacuated and two lives were lost after weeks of heavy rain along Queensland’s north tropical coast.
However, Hines said it was too early to say what parts of the coast would be affected or how strong the wind and rain would be.
“The key message through the first half of this week for people in Queensland is to keep a watch of the forecast track maps for tropical cyclone Alfred in the coming days,” he said.
WA is also just recovering from Tropical Cyclone Zelia, which swept over the Pilbara coast as a category five, bringing damaging winds and extensive flooding.
Tropical Cyclone Bianca, which was declared a category one in the Indian Ocean late on Sunday, was about 1000 kilometres west of Western Australia early on Monday.
It is moving further southwest parallel to the WA coast but will not affect the state’s weather.
It is forecast to strengthen to category two but that will be its peak before weakening below a cyclone on Wednesday.
“There is high confidence that Tropical Cyclone Bianca will weaken a long way away from the country without really impacting the weather for Western Australia or for the offshore islands in the Indian Ocean,” Hines said.
– AAP
