A tropical cyclone is hitting northeastern Australia, the first of the season and part of a series of extreme weather events Australia has experienced in recent days, including heatwaves, floods and bushfires.
Tropical Cyclone Jasper is expected to make landfall as a Category 2 storm near the Queensland city of Cairns (population 170,000) on Wednesday afternoon, local time, with devastating winds of up to 130 kilometers per hour. More than 8,000 homes are without power and 93 people have been evacuated.
The country’s meteorological authority said a tropical cyclone arriving so early in the season in an El Niño year, which is characterized by warm and dry conditions, is unusual.
“It’s quite rare to see a tropical cyclone form in December, during an El Niño year,” Laura Boekel, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We actually haven’t had one on the record since we started recording in the ’70s.”
Australia’s tropical cyclone seasons usually run from November to April in the north of the country, but in El Niño years the season usually doesn’t start until January or February, she added.
Australia is facing its worst fire season since the deadly Black Summer of 2019 to 2020, when an estimated 480 people died from direct exposure to fire or smoke inhalation. The past few months have been characterized by unpredictable extreme weather. A record-breaking dry September and dry October were followed by a wetter than average November.
Last weekend the country was ravaged by fires, heat waves and floods.
Sydney, Australia’s largest city, was hit by a heat wave, with temperatures reaching 111 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. In Western Australia, firefighters struggled to control a raging wildfire that ignited on Sunday during extreme heat and high winds.
Meanwhile, parts of South Australia received their heaviest December rain on record on Sunday. Storms brought more than 20,000 lightning bolts and left 30,000 properties without power. Parts of Victoria also experienced heavy rain and flash flooding on the same day.
