The Cairns Diaries

Wow. Mission Beach cops it again. And then Rocky next weekend. So far this Townsville has more rain than Cairns - weather patterns are all wrong - we should be in the wet now and last week was the best weather we've had for months in terms of clear skies.

I'm a half year late to notice those scones, dadpad. Pumpkin scones, I see, by looking at the photo URL. This might be something I need to try to make.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/PumpkinScones.html

Hah, 19th Avenue is where I had my memorable intersection car breakdown. Scary stuff, it made most of the people in three directions pissed off and honking about it - adrenalin time. Luckily a nice guy helped me get the car to the side of the road. It turns out there were no Volvo dealers in the city, or maybe even any car dealers, not sure, very confusing. Then followed an enforced weekend in San Francisco as the gas station I was towed to was closed for the weekend after I got there.. The good news? I had credit cards and a cell phone, a hotel to sign in at (Garden Palace, I think was the name - a friend had mentioned it before as he was fixing the elevator system there), and one more chance to walk the beautiful city. 19th Avenue is a great street along with 280 through the peninsula, really a favorite road, but it'll always inspire a short frisson of fear in my heart.

Coming back the other way, on 280 to get to 19th, I found myself floating the car in early morning fog over some kind of low bridge - or it seemed like a bridge - bumper to bumper. Weird, scary, and totally beautiful.

I think the Hinges would really like San Francisco.


Back to triple cyclones!

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2011/01/31/147001_local-news.html

AUTHORITIES last night described a cyclone tracking towards the Far North as a "Goliath" capable of causing extensive damage if it crossed the coast.

Currently Yasi is about 4 times as big as Anthony. Oh great.

Just looked at the link you provided, hinge.

Crikey.

Good luck, this sounds like it's going to be very nasty!

I can't tell if big (as in 400km radius) also means more powerful - I guess it must be to maintain it's coherence as a low pressure system. It's still too far out for BOM to be tracking it but that article says it could hit as early as Wednesday. Mrs Hinge is getting a little panicky. Will no doubt soon chastise me for being blase.

Yikes - Hinge...

weather is certainly fierce around your way!

Get it over with now, please

You're blase, hinge?
I'm with Mrs Hinge on this!

A fun evening of ice making and checking out my shiny new generator ahead.

Very wise.

Fingers crossed.

The US navy apparently use three different methods to calculate cyclone paths - apparently all three show this:

It looks pretty effin big from space too.

I don't think finger crossing will help on this one.

This will be very very VERY bad.

The authorities are actually deliberately underplaying it.
I'm not sure why, but I know that they are.

Please take this one as the most serious threat Hinge.

(Gosh, that's the most serious I've ever been, I think.)

Nope, no real relationship between intensity and size. In fact, they often get smaller when intensifying. But this one is going to manage to be big and strong at the same time. To give you an idea of the scale of this thing, the most outer winds will be felt in Longreach before the eye crosses the coastline.

A brilliant way of explaining it Eorl, but not one I'll be passing onto Mrs Hinge who couldn't sleep and is back up waiting for BoM's 11pm update.

The most important factor in the "strength" of cyclonic storms is the amount of heat they pick up from the water. That's why they die out over land, because they aren't being "fueled" by warm moisture as they can be over the ocean.

Keep drifting north bubbelah (sorry Cooktown)

Good luck all.

Jeez...you8 guys in Queensland can't cut a break right now.

Welcome to global warming, eh?

That thing is enormous!

Very scary. What do you do to prepare?