Strongest worldwide tropical systems
Randy Mann.
JAKE PARRISH/Press
Last week, I wrote about the different names of major tropical systems that included hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. Ironically, a major storm, Tropical Cyclone Alfred, made landfall on Australia’s East Coast on Saturday. It was the strength of a Category 2 Atlantic hurricane before it weakened and came onshore near one of its major cities, Brisbane. High winds and very heavy rainfall have left hundreds of thousands without power.
About four cyclones hit Australia each year. However, most of them are much farther northward in the tropical regions in the Southern Hemisphere. Alfred is a very strong storm to be this far to the south. The last time a cyclone was near this latitude was back in 1974, so this has been classified as a rare event.
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