Cyclones down the memory hole?
July 1935, Click to enlarge | Trove
A weak tropical cyclone has formed off the Solomon Islands, and the BOM is reporting that there has never before been a July cyclone in the Queensland region. But Warwick Hughes has already posted up details showing that there have been quite a few cyclones in July. The cyclone is hardly extraordinary, and certainly not “historic”, but what about the BOM?
Forecaster David Grant on the ABC:
“We’ve never had a July tropical cyclone in the Queensland region before.
Australia has only had one other officially declared July cyclone, which formed off Western Australia in 1996.
The official tropical cyclone season runs from November 1 to April 30.”
The July cyclone “first” scores headlines in both The Australian and The Courier Mail. “Queensland weather forecasters record first cyclone in July “. But it’s wrong. Commenter Siliggy on Warwick Hughes site found a HardenUp link listing cyclones and storms in Queensland. Some of the older July cyclones listed below may not qualify as “cyclones” under the new scale, but some clearly did — and rather than being far to the north near the Solomons, cyclonic winds of 70 knots were recorded as far south as Tweed Heads in July 1962. The BoM is supposed to give Australians the full picture of our climate, not mislead people into thinking that our climate is changing when it has always been highly variable.
It is deceptive of the BOM not to let Australian’s know about our real climate history:
From the HardenUp link listing cyclones and storms in Queensland.
17-19 Jul 1889
Cyclone near Rockhampton 17th, Brisbane 18th then moved east. Gales and heavy seas on north and Central coasts of NSW. Vessels lost Fraser Island to Coffs Harbour.
28 Jul 1919
Cyclone passed southwards between New Caledonia and Queensland. Ships driven on Barrier Reef southeast of Mackay.
22-24 July 1921
Cyclone from NE struck northern NSW coast causing gales and shipping disruptions before recurving to SE. Disastrous floods SE Qld and northern NSW. Goondiwindi, Warwick and Roma flooded. Several houses washed away and 2 men drowned at Texas. A man drowned at Inglewood. Heavy stock and crop losses and damage to roads and bridges.
29-30 Jun 1929
Cyclone recurved to SE just to NE of Cape Moreton with gales and heavy rain. Much damage at Sandgate. Flooding in Pine and Nerang Rivers.
7 July 1931
Cyclone developed SE Qld and moved towards the SE. High winds Brisbane.
10-11 Jul 1933
Cyclone recurved over Broadsound and Rockhampton towards southeast. Floods Central Q.
7-10 July 1935
Cyclone recurved over Shoalwater Bay and moved towards SE. Gales. SS Maheno driven ashore. Heavy rain Central Q. (See other Trove newspaper reports). “Waves 30 feet high“. Boats were caught in a “harrowing” experience.
Complex cyclonic system crossed coast near Bundaberg and then recurved towards SE. Winds to hurricane force left a trail of damage along the coast south from Bundaberg. Woman killed at Nambour Houses when shed was lifted by wind and hurled into her . House, shops , jetties and boats were badly damaged. 200 people were left homeless, hundreds of small craft were wrecked. Many houses unroofed including 50 at Caloundra. Hurricane force winds in Moreton Bay with widespread property and boat damage at Redcliffe, Sandgate and Wynnum. The Redcliffe jetty was badly damaged by large waves with most of the decking forced upwards and ripped off. The Dutch naval sloop Snellius reported waves to 21 metres off the South Coast.
9-11 Jul 1962
Cyclone developed NE of Fraser Island and moved past Gold Coast. 60 to 70 knot winds reported from Tweed Heads to Yamba in the 24 hours to 9am 11th. Local Flash floods Brisbane to Gold Coast. Fruit trees damaged buildings flattened Sunnybank. Small boats wrecked, buildings flattened, extensive beach erosion and roads damaged Gold Coast. Radio Mast wrecked Lytton. Widespread flooding Nerang, Albert and Logan Rivers.
In NSW Small craft lost or damaged at North Coast harbours. Bad floods Murwillumbah, Lismore, Bellingen and Grafton with many evacuations and people drowned. At 1pm 9th 2 waterspouts came ashore at Port Macquarie and left a trail of destruction. 3 men were killed when a 2 story building they were building was wrecked. 30 house were damaged. Largest 24 hr rain totals 265mm Springbrook and 227mm Lismore.
18-21 Jul 1965
Cyclone developed east of Brisbane, moved up to Fraser Island and then turned southwards over Brisbane, then down to Yamba and then seawards.
Wind gusts to 60 knots recorded at the Bureau in Brisbane. There was much damage to small structures in the metropolitan area and 3 houses were unroofed. Trees were uprooted, plate glass windows smashed and telephone and power lines downed. Along the Bay many small craft were damaged. There was much crop damage in surrounding areas. Fallen trees and floods blocked roads. 24 hour rainfall rain totals in Brisbane were up to 236mm on th 20th. And 510 mm fell in 24 hrs at Springbrook. The upper trough associated with the development of the cyclone brought snow into the tropics for the first time on record. Scattered falls were reported on the 19th from the Central Highlands through the northern Warrego to the Darling Downs and Maranoa. Further north snow fell west of Mackay at Dalrymple Heights and Blue Mountain. Sleet was observed at Nebo and Clermont and on the 20th Thangool reported snow.
5-8 Jul 1973
Cyclone developed east of Mackay (5th) and moved down just seawards of the Sunshine Coast by 7th. It then moved back up north to the east of Yeppoon. Four people drowned on the evening of the 8th. Two near Nambour when the car went into a creek and two near Yandina after their car became stranded. Average winds of 40 to 55 knots were reported along the South Coast from 8 am 5th until 10pm 8th. A ship reported average winds of 60 knots off Stradbroke Island at 3pm 6th while another ship reported winds of 74 knots off the Gold Coast at 3pm 7th. Trees and power line were brought down throughout southeast Qld causing widespread blackouts. Some houses were unroofed at Kingaroy and near Warwick. The South Nobby wave recording station on the Gold Coast reported significant wave heights to 5.2 metres and maximum wave heights to 8.7 metres.
The 1600 ton cargo ship Cherry Venture was driven ashore 1.5 km south of Double Island Point on the afternoon of the 8th after foundering in “forty foot waves”.
Twenty four rainfall totals recorded 9am 8th included 384mm Nambour; 349mm Woodford; 340 Mapleton; 335mm Maleny and 328mm Springbrook(7th ) . Many roads in southeast Qld were cut by floods and in Gympie 6 feet of water was over Mary St on the night of the 8th. The Mary R at Gympie peaked at 19.6 metres at 2am on the 9th with houses shops and factories under 2 m of water.
29-30 Jul 1979
Cyclone developed to the NE of Fraser Island moved down just to the east of Brisbane and then turned eastwards out to sea. Gales along the Gold Coast. The Brisbane wave recording station (7 km east of Point Lookout) recorded significant (peak) wave heights of 4.7m (8.7m) on 30 July.
Australian severe weather, which lists all BOM tropical cyclones, shows cyclone 127 as a July cyclone 1n 1935.
The BOM is clutching at straws, With reports that are riddled with flaws, As they do all they can, To pin cyclones on man, In support of the failed warmist cause.– Ruairi
What’s a cyclone and what’s a bad storm?
The BOM cyclone scale shows that a category 1 cyclone has wind speeds of over 48 knots (89 km/hr), though it’s ambiguous because they say the winds correspond to “Beaufort scale 8 or 9”, which they then list as 34-47 knots (62 -88 km/hr). Storms with winds above 64 knots, or 118 km/hr, are considered to be “hurricanes”.
If readers can find wind speeds mentioned in the Trove archives, I will add those links to this list.
Thanks to Warwick, Lance, and Ken