Discussion: and other queensland towns

reports on the impact of hamish on yeppoon have amused.

As long as Hamish stays 150km off the coast the coastal towns won't see anything more dramatic than heavy rain and big surf, but it's close enough that a SW turn could bring it inland very quickly. Hervey Bay is more in the potential firing line than most because the coast sticks out at that point, and because the shape of Hervey Bay has the potential to funnel a storm surge into populated areas with the right (wrong) cyclone track.

The current forecast track has Hamish turning SSW towards Fraser Island, but the margin for error in this forecast is high. The worst-case scenario would involve the cyclone passing, say, 100km east of Fraser Island and then turning SSW - that could bring it all the way into the Brisbane area. I doubt it would be more than a category 3 at that latitude, but I'm not sure Brisbane would cope too well with a category 3 (as I understand it, cyclone building codes only come into effect from the Sunshine Coast northwards).