you fuckers be grateful i didn't get you good
SYDNEY, April 24, 2006 (AFP) -A hugely destructive cyclone described as a "perfect" storm bore down Monday on the isolated northern Australian city of Darwin, devastated by a killer cyclone in 1974.
Packing winds of up to 350 kilometres (218 miles) an hour, Tropical Cyclone Monica was moving relentlessly towards Darwin as it turned towards the coast from the Arafura Sea, the government's weather bureau said.
"It's probably the best developed cyclone I have seen in many, many years," said David Alexander, a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology.
"It's got a perfect circular eye, it's right at the top of a category five range, so it's a very, very severe cyclone."
Category five is the highest and most dangerous ranking for a tropical cyclone. The 1974 storm which killed 71 people and left 20,000 homeless in Darwin, Cyclone Tracy, was a category four storm.
Alexander said Monica was far more dangerous than Cyclone Larry, which smashed into Australia's eastern Queensland coast less than a month ago, causing more than a billion dollars in damage.
The cyclone could weaken after it made landfall but would remain a severe tropical cyclone by the time it reached Darwin Tuesday afternoon, said Darwin Cyclone Warning Centre spokesman Gordon Jackson.
It was "quite possibly" the most severe cyclone to ever hit Australia, Jackson said.
The "very destructive core of Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica, with gusts to 350 kilometres per hour" was expected to approach the Darwin area on Tuesday, the weather bureau said.
Destructive winds with gusts of up to 160 kilometres an hour were already hitting the far north coast and dangerously high tides could cause extensive flooding, the cyclone warning centre reported.
As darkness fell, Monica was 355 kilometres east northeast of Darwin, and moving west southwest at 14 kilometres per hour, the centre said.
Packing winds of up to 350 kilometres (218 miles) an hour, Tropical Cyclone Monica was moving relentlessly towards Darwin as it turned towards the coast from the Arafura Sea, the government's weather bureau said.
"It's probably the best developed cyclone I have seen in many, many years," said David Alexander, a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology.
"It's got a perfect circular eye, it's right at the top of a category five range, so it's a very, very severe cyclone."
Category five is the highest and most dangerous ranking for a tropical cyclone. The 1974 storm which killed 71 people and left 20,000 homeless in Darwin, Cyclone Tracy, was a category four storm.
Alexander said Monica was far more dangerous than Cyclone Larry, which smashed into Australia's eastern Queensland coast less than a month ago, causing more than a billion dollars in damage.
The cyclone could weaken after it made landfall but would remain a severe tropical cyclone by the time it reached Darwin Tuesday afternoon, said Darwin Cyclone Warning Centre spokesman Gordon Jackson.
It was "quite possibly" the most severe cyclone to ever hit Australia, Jackson said.
The "very destructive core of Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica, with gusts to 350 kilometres per hour" was expected to approach the Darwin area on Tuesday, the weather bureau said.
Destructive winds with gusts of up to 160 kilometres an hour were already hitting the far north coast and dangerously high tides could cause extensive flooding, the cyclone warning centre reported.
As darkness fell, Monica was 355 kilometres east northeast of Darwin, and moving west southwest at 14 kilometres per hour, the centre said.