Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred Delivers Heavy Rain, Strong Winds

Queensland, The Gulf Observer: Australia’s east coast has been battered by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which has unleashed heavy rain, strong winds, and high surf, particularly affecting southern Queensland over the past week.

Alfred made landfall as an ex-Tropical Cyclone at approximately 8 p.m. on Saturday. It has since moved inland through southern Queensland, transitioning from a closed low-pressure system with tightly rotating winds into a low-pressure trough, according to media reports. Despite weakening just before landfall, Alfred’s slow movement resulted in some of the most extreme weather the region has experienced in decades.

One of the first impacts felt was the massive waves, with Alfred’s offshore strength generating swells as high as “three or four-storey buildings.” The highest recorded wave was an astonishing 12.3 metres on the Gold Coast, marking the largest wave in 38 years of measurements.

While surfers took advantage of the large swell in the lead-up to Alfred, the storm’s waves caused significant beach erosion. As a result, millions of cubic metres of sand were washed away from about 500 kilometres of coastline, stretching from Coffs Harbour in New South Wales to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. In some dunes, the erosion created escarpments up to 6 metres high, particularly along iconic Gold Coast tourist stretches.

However, it was Alfred’s torrential rainfall following its landfall that caused the most significant impact. Overnight on Sunday, rain and thunderstorms brought widespread falls of 200-400mm across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Scenic Rim, and even the Lockyer Valley. Brisbane’s main gauge recorded an impressive 275.2mm of rainfall in the 24 hours up to 9 a.m. on Monday, marking the city’s wettest day in half a century. The last time the city experienced a higher daily rainfall total was in January 1974, when 314mm fell during the devastating Brisbane River floods following Tropical Cyclone Wanda.