Rare tropical cyclone in the Pacific offers a lesson for 2025 hurricane season
Hurricanes and their ilk can strike year-round, as the residents of Brisbane, Australia, are discovering this week.
Alfred ‒ called a cyclone, not a hurricane in that part of the world ‒ is taking aim Friday on Brisbane, Queensland's state capital. Brisbane was last hit by a cyclone more than half a century ago, in 1974. The city of around 2.7 million had near misses from cyclones in 1990 and in 2019.
While cyclone aren't unusual in other parts of Australia around this time of year, Alfred is a reminder that powerful storms have the power to show up in some surprising places.
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season starts in less than 3 months, giving residents time to prepare for disaster.
Alfred a reminder that hurricane danger can appear in unusual places
"I think the rare thing with Alfred is its location," Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach told Paste BN Thursday via email. "While the northern part of Australia is frequently hit by tropical cyclones, the chances of being impacted by tropical cyclones drops off precipitously as you head farther south in Australia." This includes the Brisbane metro area.
Here in the U.S., who can forget out-of-place Hurricane Hillary, which drenched southern California in 2023? That August, the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning in southern California, the first on record, which ran from the Mexico–United States border to north of Los Angeles.
Although it was the height of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, most residents in the Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas were not used to such impacts from tropical systems. Eastern Pacific hurricanes typically primarily affect Mexico, or spin harmlessly out to sea.
How to prepare for hurricane danger
The best time to prepare for a hurricane is before hurricane season begins on June 1, the National Hurricane Center said. It is vital to understand your home's vulnerability to storm surge, flooding, and wind. Here is your checklist of things to do before hurricane seasons begins.Here are some Paste BN links to bookmark on how to prepare your home for a hurricane and how to prepare a go-bag in case you need to evacuate.
Alfred landfall likely Saturday
The storm is now likely to make landfall by Saturday morning near Brisbane, Australia's third-most populous city, the Bureau of Meteorology said in its latest update.
The main threat will be heavy rain and flooding over the next few days, but coastal areas can have wind gusts in excess of 60 mph, said Jason Nicholls, AccuWeather lead international forecaster.
"Some parts of northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland have received over 4 inches of rain already," he said in an e-mail to Paste BN. "These areas can receive 1-2 feet of rain before the rain winds down early next week.”
The storm's destructive reach will stretch across the border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales, the bureau said, bringing heavy rain, flooding and damaging wind.
"Alfred is behaving at the moment like a completely unwanted houseguest. It's told us it's going to be late but linger even longer," New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters.
2025 Atlantic hurricane season forecast coming soon
"We're starting to work on our initial outlook for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season," said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach "Obviously, one of the big questions that we have is… will the current La Niña transition to El Niño or stay either neutral or La Niña for the peak of the season?"
El Niño and La Niña are major players in the strength and intensity of hurricane seasons in our neck of the woods.
Answers to that question will come in the weeks and months ahead.
Contributing: Reuters