Thousands without power as Cyclone Alfred nears eastern Australia
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A lifeguard post and a collapsed tree on the eroded shoreline of Southport Spit in the Gold Coast area of Queensland, Australia, on March 7. Photo: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images
Thousands of residents in eastern Australia were ordered to evacuate, as Tropical Cyclone Alfred's heavy rains and powerful winds blast two states ahead of it's expected landfall near Brisbane, the country's third-largest city.
The big picture: It's already caused widespread power outages and triggered storm surge along the southern Queensland and northern New South Wales coasts. Those who haven't evacuated were urged to stay inside ahead of its expected hit as a Category 2 storm, per the Bureau of Meteorology.
- Airports, schools and businesses were closed, as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology warned that heavy to locally intense rainfall would bring heavy flooding ahead of it's expected landfall around lunchtime Saturday local time (Friday morning ET).
- Cyclone Alfred is the equivalent of a strong tropical storm in the U.S., but its slow rate of speed and unusual landfall location make it an especially heightened threat.
Threat level: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a Friday briefing that rainfall and wind impacts were expected to continue increasing.
- "This is a serious weather event, with heavy rain, destructive winds and major flooding expected," Albanese said.
- Queensland Premier David Crisafulli at a briefing called Cyclone Alfred an "extremely rare event," with the last such storm hitting state capital Brisbane in 1974.
- "Overnight we saw it packed a punch," he said, after some 82,000 properties on Queensland's Gold Coast and northern NSW lost power.
Between the lines: Tropical cyclones aren't usually so intense this far south and they don't usually make landfall in this region.
- Research suggests tropical cyclones are intensifying more quickly, with stronger wind speeds and heavier rainfall and they may "retain their strength for longer, and move more slowly" across areas in "our rapidly changing climate," per the Australian nonprofit the Climate Council.
- Cyclone Alfred was primarily influenced by human-driven climate change, which intensified the meteorological conditions that led to the event, according to new analysis by ClimaMeter, which provides a rapid framework for understanding extreme weather events in a changing climate.
What they're saying: "Cyclone Alfred is a striking example of how human-driven climate change is altering the intensity and behavior of tropical cyclones in Australia," said Stavros Dafis, a researcher at the National Observatory of Athens, Greece, who's involved in the ClimaMeter project, in an emailed statement.
- "The combination of higher sea surface temperatures and increased atmospheric moisture is fueling heavier rainfall and stronger winds," he added.
- "Our analysis of historical cyclone records suggests that storms like Alfred are becoming more intense and producing more extreme precipitation, raising the risk of catastrophic flooding and coastal erosion."
In photos: Cyclone Alfred bears down on Australia's east coast
Go deeper: Extreme precipitation risks currently underestimated
Editor's note: This story was updated with additional context.
