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Watching Debbie — Cat 4 hits the coast

Cyclone Debbie, satellite image

From the BOM animated satellite viewer. (Click to enlarge, or  click here for the animation — if you have the bandwidth).

This image was taken at about 6pm EST as darkness started to sweep across the nation. (It is all dark now).

For sheer weather voyerism (forgive me people of Ayr-to-Mackay): at the BOM satellite animation watch night befall the nation and notice how the the clouds appear for-all-the-world like river rapids flowing over rocks. Up close in the darkness, the clouds roil and churn like a wave smashing over a beach. (I’m sure if someone could capture some cropped video it would be impossible to tell if it were clouds or waves, see the “white-water” above Antarctica. See the two waves collide explosively into each other over the Pilbara in NW WA).

Best wishes to everyone in Debbie’s path tonight.

UPDATE:

12 noon QLD Time: Hamilton Island is on the edge of the eye right now according to the radarLatest Observations at Hamilton Island show wind gusts peaked at 263km/hr at 10:30am Qld time. Lowest pressure 961HpA. About 120mm rain recorded in last 24 hours.   [Copy of Obs, Copy of Radar.] On the Dvorak scale the cyclone was a 6.5 (8 is Max) but has lost some intensity and is down to 5.4. 947mB, 109.8 kts. [Dvorak copy here].

 

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