Kiss My Yasi!

By www.willyweather.com.au on March 1, 2011 in Other

After realising that Yasi was not a popular 1980s dice game making a comeback, many of you probably took to Google like never before. What you still may not have discovered is that most casualties caused by a tropical cyclone occur during the storm surge that follows.

The storm surge is the combination of persistent cyclonic winds, a low pressure system and a shallow body of water. The high winds cause one surge of water, and at the same time the low pressure causes an uplift of wind at the eye of the storm, which creates a second surge. The shape of the ocean floor affects how high the storm surge is when it reaches land, and the combination of a high tide and waves whipped up by the wind can cause widespread devastation in low lying areas.

Fortunately, the worst of the storm surge produced by Yasi came in during low tide for most areas. In fact, it was an especially low tide due to the new moon. However, it was still strong enough to throw boats two streets back in Cardwell, and completely destroy many homes up and down the coast.

To see the storm surge in action, and for some light entertainment, Google ‘woman plays in Yasi storm surge’.

Did You Know?

There was another TC Yasi in 1996 (Category 1) – probably not the one that will be remembered though!

Weather Stats

Temperature
Temp High – 39.8 1983
Temp Low – 9.3 1886
Temp Av – 21.1

Rainfall
Rain High – 521.4mm 1942
Rain Low – 8.4mm 1965
Rain Av – 129.9mm

Sunrise
Sun, 1st rise – 6:42am
Sun, 1st set – 7:31pm
Sun, 31st rise – 7:06am
Sun, 31st set – 6:52pm

Moonphases

New Moon – 4th March
First Quarter – 12th March
Full Moon – 19th March
Last Quarter – 26th March

All information on this page provided by www.willyweather.com.au.