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| The path taken by TC Ingrid from its initial
detection as a tropical low on 4 March to 10pm tonight. The cyclone location
symbols along the track show date, time and category, while the concentric
circles around the latest location show, from the centre, very destructive
winds (gusts over 170km/h), destructive winds (gusts 125 to 170km/h) and
gales (gusts to 125km/h). Gales or stronger winds were forecast for the
orange area within 24 hours and for the tan area in 24 to 48 hours. BoM |
 QLD:
Cyclone Ingrid weakens as coast approached
TC Ingrid slowly weakened today as it continued its generally westerly movement
toward the central Cape York Peninsula. Estimates of central pressure by the
Bureau of Meteorology rose from 930hPa at 10pm last night to 935 at 4am, 950
at 4pm and 970 at 10pm. Late this evening Ingrid was about 150km ENE of Coen,
rated category 3, and moving west at 10km/h with core winds estimated to be
gusting to 190km/h out to 20km from the centre.
Eighty staff and 30 guests at the luxury Lizard Island Resort, 30km NNE of
Cape Flattery, were evacuated to the mainland today along with two mainland
resorts near Cape Tribulation. Cape Flattery Silica Mine was also partially
evacuated, as was the low-lying Port Stewart aboriginal community 50km ESE
of Coen. Maritime authorities were tracking 120 boats, mainly prawn trawlers,
as they moved out
of the cyclone's
path, while most
boats evacuated
Princess
Charlotte Bay. Elsewhere, ample warning meant emergency plans were in
readiness and preparations made.
Cape Flattery, shown on the map above, provided the only rather unremarkable
evidence of Ingrid's presence today with wind gusting to 76km/h around 6am
and a 24-hour
to 9am windrun of 1016km (an 24-hour average windspeed of 42km/h). The Press,
after being rather slow to react to category 5 warnings yesterday, seized on
several phrases today -- "most severe cyclone to threaten Australia's east
coast in 100 years", "worst cyclone in 30 years" and "the perfect storm" were
the favourites -- that continued to be used well after the system had been
downgraded.
See also this Bureau
of Meteorology special report.
 NT: Hot days in
the central Territory
Although the maximum temperature departures from normal map for today shows
the central NT only 4 to 8 above normal, this is an unusually large departure
for an area that experiences limited day-to-day variations in temperature.
Katherine's top of 38.2 equalled its highest March maximum in 20 years of
record, while Larrimah, Daly Waters and Elliott were all just 1.0 to
0.5 below their March records.
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