Hervey Bay Gossip

The severe weather warning issued by the Weather Bureau on 3 January for Hervey Bay has now been cancelled but is still in effect for coastal areas south of Cape Moreton.

A coastal wind warning for waters from Sandy Cape (Fraser Island) to Point Danger was issued by the Bureau at 4.10am this morning. For waters from Sandy Cape to Double Island Point the Bureau is forecasting south to south-easterly winds blowing at 25 to 30 knots with seas to 3 metres in open waters.

Winds below 30 knots are expected within Hervey Bay.

The forecast for Hervey Bay is for showers throughout the day with a minimum of 21C and a maximum of 26C.

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING for Damaging Winds, Flash Flooding and Dangerous Surf causing coastal inundation.

For people on Fraser Island through to the Sunshine and Gold Coasts.
Issued at 11:10 am on Thursday 3 January 2008

Synoptic Situation: A developing low pressure system about 650 km east of Noosa
will move west during the next 24 hours and be located about 300km east of Noosa
by 10am Friday. 

Very large waves are expected to develop on top of the current swells causing
dangerous conditions today and into Friday. Waves heights are expected to
gradually decrease Friday afternoon. Winds are also expected to increase along coastal areas during today with gusts likely reach 90 km/h in more exposed parts which will then ease during Friday. 

Increasing rainfall overnight Thursday and into early Friday could lead to flash flooding about the Southeast Coast District in smaller streams about the coast and west towards the Dividing Range.

The State Emergency Service advises that people in the affected area should:

- if near the coastline, stay well away from the water’s edge. 

- People are advised to secure outside items, move cars under cover and seek
shelter.

Contact the SES on 132 500 for emergency assistance if required.

The weather outlook for Hervey Bay continues to include a lot of rain. In fact the latest forecasts suggest that we could have rain right through until next Tuesday.

The low pressure system that threatened to turn into a tropical cyclone late last week continues to move northward and a another low is moving up the coast. There is also the possibility of a tropical low forming in the Gulf, crossing the Cape and developing into a tropical cyclone before moving south by Saturday.

At 5am this morning Hervey Bay had received 34mm of rain since 9am yesterday. Rainfall of around 20-40mm is expected today and that will be accompanied by winds that are expected to reach 50 km/h by this afternoon.

… Hervey Bay is the place to be.

Currently the Queensland coast - from Rockhampton in the north all the way down to the Gold Coast is experiencing some very rough weather. Beaches are closed as big waves pound the coastline and, when they combine with high tides around lunch time, the Weather Bureau expects that in some parts of the Gold Coast and Fraser Island the waves will extend beyond the beach zone.

But here in Hervey Bay, even though we’ve got wind gusts up to 57 km/h at the moment, the water is quite calm as you can see from this image taken from the Aquavue Cafe Watersports webcam just a few minutes ago.

With a current temperature of 24.3 C and that calm water Hervey Bay is definitely the place to be in the rough weather that the rest of the coast is experiencing today.

Update at 5.22pm

At 4.40pm today the Bureau updated it’s Severe Weather Warning for the east coast from south of Rockhampton down to Fraser Island and on to the Gold Coast. It seems that there has been little change in their previous forecast although the Bureau now expects coastal areas from Sandy Cape to Cape Moreton to experience wind gusts of up to 100 km/hour on Sunday.

Currently the weather in Hervey Bay is fine and sunny and 25 C. The wind is blowing from the south-south-east with gusts up to 48 km/hour and the barometric pressure is 1009 hPa and rising.

The Weather Bureau continues to forecast little change in the low pressure system that is currently bringing high winds and rain to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island. At 10.55am this morning the low was centred approximately 420 km north east of Sandy Cape and is expected to remain there for the next 24 hours.

When the low pressure system does begin to move it is expected to head northwest.

There seems little likelihood of the low pressure system developing into a tropical cyclone at this stage despite the dire predictions that are coming from the media.

The system is generating gale force winds and high seas and these conditions are expected to spread south to Tweed Heads during Sunday. The Bureau is expecting high tides on the east coast of Fraser Island to exceed the usual high tide mark and some waves during high tide are expected to extend beyond the beach zone.

While the Weather Bureau continues to warn of the potential for a tropical low pressure system to form off the coast of Queensland at 8pm this evening this system had still not formed.

If it does form it is expected to move southeast and develop into a tropical cyclone but computer models developed by the Bureau have been unable to conclusively indicate which direction the tropical cyclone would track.

At 2.38pm today the Bureau issued a Tropical Cyclone Outlook that indicated that the chances of the low pressure system developing into a Tropical Cyclone on Friday, Saturday or Sunday were low.

However the Bureau is warning of abnormally high tides and dangerous surf around Fraser Island and the Sunshine Coast together with gale force winds.

Currently (9.20pm) there are several bands of heavy rain showing on the radar around Hervey Bay.

Earlier today three Danish sailors were rescued from a yacht off the northern tip of Fraser Island.

Hervey Bay is facing the possibility of a tropical cyclone hitting the city on Saturday. At 3.11pm today the Weather Bureau’s three day cyclone outlook included this warning:

At the present time there are no significant tropical disturbances in the Coral Sea. A low pressure system is expected to develop over the western Coral Sea within 180nm of 20S 153E during Thursday and then further intensify into Friday as it moves southeast.

The likelihood for Tropical Cyclone development within the next three days is:
Thursday: low
Friday: Moderate
Saturday: High

While the low is expected to head south-east it is expected to turn towards the coast as the cyclone forms. If the cyclone does eventuate the Weather Bureau warns that we should expect big seas along the coastline.

Tropical Cyclone Guba has formed in the Coral Sea off the far north Queensland coast and may cross the coast north of Cairns.

Experts are suggesting that this could be the first of up to a dozen cyclones expected to form this season and there are expectations that this could be the worst season for tropical cyclones since 1998.

That was quite a nasty storm that swept through Hervey Bay just after 5pm yesterday. Watching it sweep over the Bay was rather awe inspiring too.

This is how it looked just before it reached Kawungan.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s weather radar at Mt Kanigan near Gympie was turned back on today so that we can now have a more reliable picture of what the weather is doing here in Hervey Bay. The radar has been down for several months now while it was upgraded and those upgrades seem to have taken longer than anticipated.

However, it’s up just in time for the start of storm season and the forecast for the next three days is for possible thunderstorms.

If you’ve never visited the Mt Kanigan Radar’s web page you will find it at:

http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR083.shtml