Published 13 years ago, updated 5 years ago

Posted Wed, 2nd Feb 2011

Severe Tropical Cyclone ‘Yasi’ was upgraded to category five off north Queensland this morning as the weather bureau warned it was likely to be more life-threatening than any storm seen in Australia in living memory.

A Tropical Cyclone warning is current for island and coastal areas from Cape Melville and Sarina, extending inland to Croydon and Hughenden.

‘There’s still potential for it to become stronger … as a strong category five we could see wind gusts in excess of 320 kilometres an hour, which is just horrific’ says Forecaster Gordon Banks

The weather bureau says Cyclone ‘Yasi’ is a large and very powerful tropical cyclone and poses an extremely serious threat to life and property within the warning area, especially between Port Douglas and Townsville.

The bureau says the low category five cyclones will continue to move in a west-southwesterly direction during today but could become a high category five before making landfall.

Senior bureau forecaster Gordon Banks says it could take at least 24 hours for Cyclone Yasi to weaken after it makes landfall.

‘There’s still potential for it to become stronger … as a strong category five we could see wind gusts in excess of 320 kilometres an hour, which is just horrific.’

At 4:00 am EST Severe Tropical Cyclone ‘Yasi,’ Category 5 was estimated to be 650 kilometres east northeast of Cairns and 650 kilometres northeast of Townsville moving west southwest at 30 kilometres per hour.

extremely damaging waves, strong currents and flooding of low-lying areas extending some way inland. People living in areas likely to be affected by this flooding should take measures to protect their property as much as possible, and be prepared to follow instructions regarding evacuation of the area if advised to do so by authorities.

Patrick Quirk from Maritime Safety Queensland says commercial shipping and recreational boat users have been well warned over the past week and should know to stay away from Cyclone ‘Yasi’.

He says he hopes no-one at sea is foolish enough to get too close to the system moving rapidly across the Coral Sea.

by Bureau of Meteorology/Marine Business News

Thanks to www.sail-world.com for this information.