Check out this big ugly muther

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 08 Mar 2005, 15:13

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDD65011.shtml
I almost got blown off the planet about 12 months ago when one parked itself (literally) above my house.
This one is rated as the biggest EVER!! Many times worse than last years effort.
I live just out of the picture at the bottom.....not nice I can tell you as I live so close to the ocean I can almost throw stones into iy.
Alan S

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 08 Mar 2005, 15:32

Better get the roof nailed down before that one lands mate!
Stewart

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 08 Mar 2005, 15:47

I've gone one better. I have one of the few houses built after the hysteria of Cyclone Tracey that flattened Darwin to a standard that is supposed to be able to handle one like Tracey; this one's worse. My place is steel framed and has around 8,500 hex headed coachbolts screwed into approx 12 gauge steel battons.
The last one corkscrewed the antenna poles after snapping guy wires, still don't know where the annexe went off a 16foot caravan and bent a radio mast that was guy wired but the wires didn't snap at almost right angles. Blew a carport away and flooded my garage with about 6 inches of run off water. This one they reckon has winds of around 290kph; the last one was about half of that 150 kph.............GULP!!!
Alan S

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 08 Mar 2005, 16:41

You'll have to make your next house out of steel reinforced concrete and bury it underground....

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 08 Mar 2005, 16:48

How are you going to tie the cars down?
Stewart

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 08 Mar 2005, 16:57

I have a garage 40 foot X 30 with a carport out back. Most are undercover.
Alan S

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 08 Mar 2005, 17:13

I hope you're not the little piggy that made his garage out of straw...

Post by **martyhopkirk** » 08 Mar 2005, 17:17

Now I know why I live in England...

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 08 Mar 2005, 17:45

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Kowalski

You'll have to make your next house out of steel reinforced concrete and bury it underground....
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
That's tempting, I suppose you would be safer living like a Womble. [:D]
Those wind speeds are very high !

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 08 Mar 2005, 17:54

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by martyhopkirk

Now I know why I live in England...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Too much more of this crap & I might join you.
Alan S

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 09 Mar 2005, 05:27

Has it landed yet?
Stewart

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 09 Mar 2005, 06:00

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by oilyspanner

Has it landed yet?
Stewart
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
no mate, it's heading back north; looks as though it will take out Cape Melville and Lockhardt River.
Believe it or not the sun's still shining where I am and the temperature is still fairly average at around 31 but the humidity is beginning to get up a bit and the biggest giveaway, the ants, are going beserk. A guy called into my place today to collect some water from my tank to brew some beer and he sat the water container (4 gallon) on a concrete block & within a couple of minutes it was covered in ants.
These things can often stuff around for days, moving towards land then out to sea and back to land again, then they'll sit out at sea and intensify and slowly move (they're the worst kind) and in between times it rains like you couldn't imagine.
A few years back I got caught in one driving back from a few hundred klms away and it was reported the next day it dumped 12 inches in just over an hour and a half. It took almost 9 hours to do what normally takes about 4. Some thrill that was crossing floodways with the sunroof opened in case you had to "abandon ship."
Alan S

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 09 Mar 2005, 17:36

The big bludger's stopped again.
Alan S

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 09 Mar 2005, 18:14

Its playing with you mate, try laying a bit of concrete or painting something, that should bring it on.
Stewart

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 10 Mar 2005, 03:13

We'll se how good I am at predicting these things.
It's now heading for the gulf at which point it may intensify, go back the way it's just come, park out in the top end of the Coral Sea and start to head south again.
It's a bit easier this morning; winds are only 220 kph and it's been downgraded to a Cat 3..............geez, hardly blow a match out[:D]
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDQP0005.txt
So far I haven't been able to find out what the rainfalls have been but now it's over land it should really dump its guts so if I find out, I'll post for those interested as I think for anyone whose never seen rainfall in the tropics, it's a bit of a culture shock...[:0][:0]
It was on the news tonight that it cut a swath across the Cape just on 60 klms wide almost from one side to the other. Fortunately it missed all inhabited areas.
Alan S[8D]