Intense Tropical Cyclone GLENDA heading for Barrow Island (W.A.)

[Up2Late]

Does anyone live there? Or is it just the home to 24 known species or subspecies that occur only on Barrow Island (and 400+ oil wells)? <http://www.rescuebarrowisland.org.au/About_Barrow/About%20Barrow%20Island.htm>

Here's the storm track. <http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/200620S.html>

This is the 48 hour track map (It is self-updating)



NOTE: This is Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, that's a Category 5 on the Tropical Cyclone SEVERITY scale used by the AUSTRALIAN Bureau of Meteorology: <http://www.bom.gov.au/info/cyclone/#severity>

<http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/warnings.shtml>

<http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/200620S_4H.html>

[Up2Late]

1. UPDATE: Major Change in forecast and landfall

<http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/200620S_2H.html>

(This is the 24 hour storm track forecast, this map is self updating)


Note: Though this is less intense than it was a few hours ago, it is still a Cat 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, that's a Category 5 on the Tropical Cyclone SEVERITY scale used by the
AUSTRALIAN Bureau of Meteorology:
<http://www.bom.gov.au/info/cyclone/#severity>

(This is the current storm Wind Field and storm track, this also updates it's self)


<http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/200620S_0H.html>

[Matilda]

2. Upgrade to Category 5 now.

Apparently heading for Karratha - I think about two people live there. Seriously, the main focus
is in fairly sparsely populated areas, but I would think nearby areas such as Port Hedland would
experience some pretty turbulent weather.

At least Larry, followed by Wati and now Glenda is forcing authorities to think maybe they should
be putting power lines underground. State governments have always screamed about the cost, but
it seems to be dawning on them that the cost in lost power and reconstruction is pretty high as
well.

[iangb]

3. Karratha's population (7000) is........

a bit less than Innisfail (8000).

It's a relatively new town, so there may not be as much as occurred in QLD.

The region is one of Australia's most cyclone prone.

[Up2Late]

4. Thankfully, it forecast to weaken a little more before it makes landfall.

Much better than this morning (about 8:00pm Western Australia time, yesterday) it grew into a monster. That purple in the top (OP) tracking graph is Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, that's 250+ km/hr sustained winds. For a while it was looking very bad for Onslow and Exmouth, for a while it was up to the intensity of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew, that destroyed South Florida.

This storm had a lot of wobble to it's track for a while, but it seems to be tracking true now.

Here's the current forecast link: <http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDW60285.shtml>