Cyclone Yasi

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Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi
Category 5 cyclone ( Australian scale )
Category 4 cyclone ( SSHWS )
Yasi at its highest intensity off the coast of Australia
Yasi at its highest intensity off the coast of Australia
Emergence January 26, 2011
resolution February 3, 2011
Peak wind
speed
215  km / h (130  mph ) (10 minutes sustained)
250  km / h (155  mph ) (sustained for 1 minute)
285  km / h (180  mph ) (gusts)
Lowest air pressure 929  hPa ( mbar )
dead 1 indirect
Property damage US $ 3 billion (2011)
Affected
areas 		Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , Papua New Guinea , Queensland ( Australia )
Season overview:
South Pacific and Australian cyclone seasons 2010–2011

Cyclone Yasi was the strongest tropical cyclone in the Australian cyclone season 2010–2011 . The cyclone formed on January 26, 2011 over the South Pacific not far from the Fiji Islands . The system intensified rapidly and steadily moved west. On January 31, it crossed the 160th east longitude as a category 3 cyclone on the Australian cyclone scale and came under the responsibility of the Bureau of Meteorology in Brisbane . Over the Coral Sea with its high water temperatures of around 28 ° C, the cyclone intensified rapidly and reached the highest category on the scale on February 1st. The train track led the cyclone to the coast of the Australian state of Queensland , which it struck on February 2 in Mission Beach . In the further course, the eye crossed, among other places, Innisfail , Tully , Cardwell and Ingham .

Storm course

Cyclone's track. The dots mark the position of the center in 6-hour intervals.

Cyclone Yasi was first identified as a tropical fault on January 26th by the responsible Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in Nadi ( Fiji Meteorological Service ; FMS). It was named 09F when it was located around 330 km south-southwest of Tuvalu . High water surface temperatures in the entire ocean cover layer up to 150 meters deep and low to moderate wind shear suggested a steady intensification of the system moving to the southwest, but the system developed only slowly in the following two days. The disorder was upgraded to Tropical Depression on January 27th. On January 28, the United States Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) described the Depression as poorly developed, with an extensive area of ​​rotating, flickering convection . The following day the system developed significantly, so that the JTWC issued the warning that a tropical cyclone was about to form. The circulation center near the ground became more pronounced and convection clouds formed on the northern periphery of the low pressure area.

During January 30th, the system intensified rapidly , so that the JTWC declared the system to be a tropical storm based on ASCAT images, as gusty winds were detected around the center of the system. The FMS, which operates the RSMC responsible for the South Pacific, also upgraded the system and assigned the name Yasi according to the list of names of tropical cyclones . At that time, cyclone Yasi was about 370 km northeast of Vanuatu. The storm was on the northern edge of a pronounced subtropical ridge and moving in a westerly direction, moving across the state's northern islands. The rapid intensification continued, and on January 31st, sustained ten-minute winds exceeded 120 km / h. The storm had intensified into a severe tropical cyclone. During the course of the day, Yasi crossed westward over the 160th east longitude, so that the RSMC Nadi issued the final warning about the system and the Tropical Cyclone Warning Center (TCWC) Brisbane of the Bureau of Meteorology took responsibility for the warnings and the first warning of the category -3 cyclone issued. Yasi continued to intensify very rapidly over the Coral Sea and was upgraded to Category 4 and finally Category 5 on the Australian cyclone scale within a few hours.

The cyclone struck near Mission Beach around 50 km south of Innisfail on the Australian east coast. The eye of the storm at the time of the landfall was registered with a diameter of 35 kilometers, the cyclone core with the highest wind speeds reached a diameter of about 100 kilometers. Yasi continuously lost power over land. At 17:15 UTC, after about five hours overland, Yasi was downgraded to Category 4; the cyclone was about 95 km southwest of Innisfail at the time. Two hours later, it was assumed that the cyclone had weakened to Category 3 by then. At 9:00 p.m. UTC, the Brisbane TCWC downgraded to Category 2. At the time, the center of Yasi was about 95 km southeast of Georgetown . The downgrade to Category 1 was published by the TCWC at 3:00 a.m. UTC when Yasi migrated about 150 km northwest of Richmond or 295 km east-northeast of Mount Isa at a train speed of about 40 km / h in a west-southwest direction.

Preparations

On February 1, 2011, the prognoses were that wind speeds of 250 to 300 kilometers per hour could occur on the Australian coast . In Cairns, 9,000 residents have been ordered to leave. The army helped evacuate the hospitals. A total of 30,000 people were called to flee. Anna Bligh , Prime Minister of Queensland, spoke of a huge and life-threatening storm. A total of around 300,000 people in the region were estimated to be affected.

The Australian armed forces helped local authorities with the ordered evacuation with 100 soldiers stationed in the Laverack Baracks in Townsville. Military equipment as well as aircraft and ships were moved from the cyclone's track. The Australian armed forces prepared to take part in the rescue, recovery and supply of the population in the affected region by air after the storm had passed. The heavy landing ship HMAS Tobruk was also prepared for a mission.

In the Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea , residents were asked to go to higher elevations.

Effects

Before the storm hit mainland Australia, the storm center moved directly over Willis Island . This small island is about 450 km east of Cairns. The meteorological data transmitted from the island reflect the approach of the storm. The anemometer was damaged by a gust of wind of 185 km / h, after which the air pressure fell to 937.9 hPa. At around 9:00 a.m. local time on February 2, the data transmission of the weather radar was interrupted, and communication with the facilities went about an hour later completely lost on the island.

The village of Mission Beach and the two smaller towns of Tully and Cardwell were particularly hard hit by Yasi. Mission Beach, where the cyclone's eye met land, has been described as Ground Zero in Australian media . In the nearby Tully, the devastation was also considerable: hardly a house remained undamaged, about every third was destroyed or covered, and a large part of the agricultural land was destroyed. Cardwell, a little further south and directly by the sea, was described by eyewitnesses "as if hit by a tsunami and almost wiped out". The two larger towns Innisfail in the north and Ingham in the south were comparatively less affected, but here too the vegetation and numerous houses were damaged by the storm and subsequent flooding.

In the two large cities of the region, Cairns and Townsville, between which the cyclone landed, the foothills of the storm center were also clearly noticeable, but the damage was limited. There was at least one fatality. A 23-year-old man suffocated near Ingham while trying to get his house back on track. He inhaled exhaust fumes from a diesel generator. Two men, a married couple and a teenager, were temporarily missing, but were found in the following days. Due to the low number of victims and the greatest possible sparing of the big cities, the subsequent reporting occasionally mentioned that Queensland “got away with it again”, but the exact economic damage cannot yet be quantified. In the region, which accounts for a third of the national sugar cane cultivation and where almost all of Australia's banana plantations are located, the agricultural sector alone has suffered enormous damage. According to initial estimates, this is at least 500 million Australian dollars .

Yasi's residual low, which moved further in a south-westerly direction, also led to heavy rain in South Australia ; in Terowie and Yongala on February 5th, rainfall of 140 mm was measured. Flooding was widespread in the north of the state and even reached Renmark on the River Murray . In the north-west of Victoria , Mildura set a new maximum value of 142 mm for precipitation in one day. In Lyndhurst, a suburb of Melbourne , on February 4, the accumulated precipitation for the 24 hours from 9:00 a.m. local time (10:00 p.m. UTC) to the following day was 180 mm.

The evacuations were gradually lifted again, although some traffic routes along the entire stretch of coast were impassable and there were considerable impairments to the electricity and water supply - at times around 200,000 households were without electricity.

See also

Web links

Commons : Yasi  - collection of images, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Queensland: After the flood of the century and cyclone "Anthony", new calamity looms  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tropical Cyclone forecast track map - Tropical Cyclone Yasi Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
  2. ^ Tropical Disturbance Summary ( English ) Fiji Meteorological Service. January 26, 2011. Archived from the original on January 26, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  3. ^ Tropical storm Yasi off Queensland , WissensLog, S. Rahmstorf, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, from February 2, 2011
  4. ^ Tropical Disturbance Summary ( English ) Fiji Meteorological Service. January 27, 2011. Archived from the original on January 27, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  5. ^ Tropical Disturbance Summary ( English ) Fiji Meteorological Service. January 27, 2011. Archived from the original on January 27, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  6. ^ Joint Typhoon Warning Center: Significant Tropical Weather Advisory for the Western and South Pacific Oceans ( English ) United States Navy. January 28, 2011. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  7. ^ Joint Typhoon Warning Center: Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert ( English ) United States Navy. January 29, 2011. Archived from the original on January 29, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  8. ^ Joint Typhoon Warning Center: Tropical Storm 11P Advisory 001 ( English ) United States Navy. January 30, 2011. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  9. ^ Tropical Disturbance Advisory Number A4 ( English ) Fiji Meteorological Service. January 30, 2011. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  10. ^ Joint Typhoon Warning Center: Tropical Storm 11P Advisory 002 ( English ) United States Navy. January 30, 2011. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  11. ^ Tropical Disturbance Advisory Number A7 ( English ) Fiji Meteorological Service. January 31, 2011. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  12. ^ Hurricane Warning 092 . Fiji Meteorological Service. January 31, 2011. Archived from the original on January 31, 2011. Retrieved on February 1, 2011.
  13. ↑ Yasi starts to cross coast ( Memento from February 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). 9 News, February 2, 2011
  14. ^ Tropical Cyclone Warning Center Brisbane: Tropical Cyclone Advice Number 27 ( English ) Bureau of Meteorology. February 3, 2011. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved on February 3, 2011.
  15. ^ Tropical Cyclone Warning Center Brisbane: Tropical Cyclone Advice Number 29 ( English ) Bureau of Meteorology. February 3, 2011. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved on February 3, 2011.
  16. ^ Tropical Cyclone Warning Center Brisbane: Tropical Cyclone Advice Number 31 ( English ) Bureau of Meteorology. February 3, 2011. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved on February 3, 2011.
  17. ↑ Focus [1]
  18. ↑ Tagesschau Yasi comes at 300 kilometers per hour ( Memento from February 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ mirror [2]
  20. ↑ WORLD [3]
  21. ^ Emma Chalmers: Defense moves planes, boats; troops on Cyclone Yasi standby (English) , Courier-Mail . February 2, 2011. 
  22. ↑ Defense ready to send ships for Yasi recovery (English) , News.com . February 2, 2011. 
  23. ↑ a b Monster cyclone knocks out weather radar (English) , Australian Broadcasting Corporation. February 2, 2011. Retrieved February 4, 2011. 
  24. ↑ a b Latest Weather Observations for Willis Island (31 January - 2 February) ( English ) Bureau of Meteorology. February 2, 2001. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved on February 2, 2011.
  25. ↑ Ground Zero at Mission Beach Herald Sun, Melbourne - February 3, 2011
  26. ^ Cyclone Yasi leaves Tully a scene of devastation Courier Mail, Brisbane - February 3, 2011
  27. ↑ Cardwell devastated by Cyclone Yasi Courier Mail, Brisbane - February 3, 2011
  28. ↑ Innisfail dodges a bullet from Cyclone Yasi Daily Telegraph, Sydney - February 3, 2011
  29. ↑ INGHAM: People sheltered in bank-vault during Cyclone Yasi Daily Telegraph, Sydney - February 3, 2011
  30. ↑ Cairns evacuees returning home after Yasi Courier Mail, Brisbane - February 3, 2011
  31. ↑ TOWNSVILLE: Lucky to dodge bullet Courier Mail, Brisbane - February 3, 2011
  32. ↑ Man suffocates in wake of Cyclone Yasi The Australian - February 4, 2011
  33. ↑ Missing teen found safe after Cyclone Yasi Herald Sun, Melbourne - February 5, 2011
  34. ↑ Queensland escapes the Focus disaster despite cyclone Yasi
  35. ↑ a b "It was spooky" , Der Spiegel . February 3, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2011. 
  36. ↑ a b Yasi-bred storms hit southern states (English) . In: The Sunday Mail , Adelaide Now, February 6, 2011. Archived from the original on February 5, 2011. 
  37. ↑ Natalie Craig: Bad luck and Yasi's tail behind the drenching (English) , The Age . February 6, 2011. Archived from the original on February 5, 2011.