I’ve pretty much finished my project to revamp the Tropical Cyclones section on ASW. I guess it is Version 4 !!

This all started back in 1987 when I first plotted BoM dataset maps on paper – thanks to inspiration from a couple of big NE NSW floods. In 1996 I scanned those and put them on the early version of Australia Severe Weather website.

I found some basic TC plotting software and for the next several years that’s what I’ve used. Despite searching around the net I never found another suitable and/or better program which included the Australian region and all the best track databases. Latter versions of the program made plotting even more painful.

Then three weeks ago I had an idea to try using Google Maps. Anyway I’ve pretty much got it the way I envisioned. Please use the regular URL to access the maps:

http://australiasevereweather.com/cyclones/

BoM data is 1906/07 to 2006/07 (though some of that last season is missing). JTWC data is 1944/94 to 2007/08, and season summary and individual maps based on operational data is also available 2003/04 to date.

There are Google Map options to toggle the map markers, date labels and lat/long grid as sometimes you want to see a clean map – ie. just the track.

Apart from this project, I’ve been busy with all the flood related weather the past almost 2 weeks. There’s been almost 400mm here at home though some places locally have copped well over 500mm. The flooding has resulted in a fair bit of EWN work and Richmond Tweed SES duties.

But the rainfall stand-outs are of course the flash flooding in Coffs Harbour on 31st March and then the Sunshine Coast hinterland two days later on the 2nd April. It was extraordinary to see two similar events (synoptically) occur in one week. Rainfalls of around 400mm in 3 hours were reported in both locations so some major damage particularly in the greater Coffs Harbour area.