Image credit: Australia Bureau of MeteorologySevere Tropical Cyclone Laurence has stormed ashore in northwestern Australiaas a powerful Category 3 hurricane.Landfall happened during the afternoon and evening of Monday, local time, alongthe Eighty Mile Beach, a sparsely settled region, near the towns of Mandora andWallal.
Weather observations taken at Mandora showed highest sustained winds to 98 mph.
And gusts topped 100 mph for a four-hour stretch during the afternoon and earlyevening. One gust of 131 mph was clocked.
The mighty cyclone also unloaded more than 13 inches of flooding rain overMandora. This would be an amount at least as high as the average yearlyrainfall for this near desert.
By late evening, local time, Laurence spun well inland, where it weakenedquickly over the western Great Sandy Desert.
The cyclone`s landfall brings near the end for this long-lived storm, whichstint as a named storm began with a 15-inch soaking of Darwin, NorthernTerritory. Along the way, it made no fewer than three landfalls along themainland--not to mention a number of small islands--of Australia`s tropical"Top End".
Laurence`s direct path and landfall lay well east of northwestern Australia`smajor offshore oil and gas fields as well as the iron ore docks of PortHedland. Its flooding rain and damaging winds also missed the big mines of thePilbara. Both are vital to the Asia steel industry.
Story by Accuweather.com Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews
