Great Barrier Reef Weather at Time of Freighter Grounding

A Chinese freighter carrying a load of coal ran aground along Australia'spristine Great Barrier Reef over the weekend triggering a spill of fueloil.Winds were blowing at 20 to 30 mph at the time of the grounding, but theweather was rain-free.

The ship is still grounded east of Great Keppel Island on the Douglas Shoal,which is but a tiny segment of the vast Great Barrier Reef.

As of Tuesday, reports said that the spilled oil was being dispersedchemically, and that the leaking of oil was stopped.

Moreover, the threat of any catastrophic breakup of the freighter, which held65,000 metric tons of coal and 950 metric tons of fuel oil, was downplayed asof Tuesday, based in part on the forecast of settled weather. This was subjectto change given any turn to bad weather.

Easterly winds on Tuesday lowered to 10 to 20 knots with even lighter winds inthe forecast through at least Thursday.

A ribbon of oil snakes away on thesurface of the water from the Chinese-registered 230m-long bulk coal carrierShen Neng 1, off the coast of Rockhampton, Australia, Monday, April 5, 2010.Officials said the cloudy water, around the ship, is from water, sand andbroken coral disturbed by the ship after it ran aground. (AP Photo/RobGriffith)
Winds and ocean currents off this part of Queensland's Great Barrier Reeftypical flow towards the mainland. Thus, fears have been that any major oilspill would affect the Queensland coast in the area of Gladstone and EmuPark.

Reports on Tuesday said that the ship was apparently 15 nautical miles off theshipping lane near a well-known short-cut that some ship's pilots take througha series of shoals.

Re-float and salvage of the freighter and its load will take a matter of weeks,one authority said.

Story by Accuweather.com Senior Meteorologists Dave Samuhel and Jim Andrews.