Residents of Queensland, Australia Watching Cyclone Ului Approaching
Posted by JAC on 3/17/2010, 5:01 pm


NASA's Aqua satellite captured Tropical Cyclone Ului's cold thunderstorm cloud tops using infrared imagery on March 17 at 10:35 a.m. EDT after the storm had departed the Solomon Islands. Credit:




Tropical Cyclone Ului has been almost sitting still in the Coral Sea for the last couple of days, but is once again moving and headed for a landfall in northeastern Queensland, Australia by the weekend.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured Tropical Cyclone Ului's cold thunderstorm cloud tops on March 17 at 10:35 a.m. EDT (14:35 UTC) after the storm had departed the Solomon Islands. The infrared imagery revealed that the two strongest areas where convection was strongest in Ului were in the northern and southern areas around the eye. It is in those two areas that the highest, coldest thunderstorm tops were revealed by AIRS infrared imagery. Those thunderstorm cloud tops were as cold as -63 Fahrenheit, and were areas where heavy rain was falling.

At 1500 UTC (11 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, March 17, Tropical Cyclone Ului was located approximately 730 nautical miles east of Cairns, Australia, near 14.6 South and 158.0 East. It had maximum sustained winds near115 mph (100 knots) and is expected to maintain that intensity over the next day. Ului was moving south-southeast at 5 mph (4 knots) after being quasi-stationary for almost one and a half days. Ului is generating waves up to 23 feet high in the Coral Sea.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology in Brisbane issued a high seas weather warning for "Met area 10," today, March 17 and a Hurricane Force Wind Warning for the North Eastern Area. They noted that Ului will remain well offshore today and Thursday, March 18, then will move closer to the Queensland coast on Friday. The Bureau noted that windy conditions over much of coastal waters off of Queensland's east coast will continue because of a tight pressure gradient generated by a combination of a high pressure system situated in the Tasman Sea and Severe Tropical Cyclone Ului, and that seas and ocean swells will increase along much of Queensland's coast as Ului approaches.

Ului is currently forecast to make landfall in northeast Queensland, south of Cairns some time on Friday, March 20. Residents along Queensland's coast should closely monitor local weather bulletins.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Ului could pack a punch when landfalls in Queensland - JAC, 3/17/2010, 7:44 am
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