A Big Storm But Not That Big...

After the hysteria from the Greens and ABC hosts - who claimed ”Super Cyclone” Yasi was proof of global warming - some cool facts from the scientists:

Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi… clocked wind speeds of 295 kilometres per hour at its greatest intensity.

But it was no super-cyclone, nor was it the biggest cyclone Australia has ever seen, says Dr Jeff Kepert, head of the High Impact Weather Research Team in the Bureau of Meteorology…

“It was a larger than average storm, in the top five or ten per cent, but that’s all. Storms of similar intensity have hit Australia and elsewhere in recent years.”

“Events like Yasi are just an extreme part of normal weather patterns...”

Professor Jonathan Nott from the Australasian Palaeohazards Research Unit with James Cook University agrees....

...The strongest in Queensland was 914 hectopascals Tropical Cyclone Mahina in 1899 which hit north of Cooktown.”

Its 350 kilometre per hour winds killed over 400 people, the largest death toll in any natural disaster in Australian history.

“But for Queensland, Yasi is the most intense since Innisfail in 1918.” ...

Nor can we link Cyclone Yasi to climate change, says Kepert.