Australia

"It's highly likely we haven't seen the end of the tropical storms and this years cyclone season may last longer than April" - WeatherWatch.co.nz

A Westport couple unable to escape Cairns before Cyclone Yasi hit overnight felt so safe in their hotel they slept, then watched the huge storm from their balcony.

Geoff and Vonny Bruning's flight to Sydney was cancelled yesterday morning, forcing them to return to their seaside hotel at Trinity Beach, about 20km northeast of Cairns.

Animation of Tropical Cyclone Yasi as it forms and starts to impact the Queensland Coast. It passed directly over the Willis Island radar which allowed the Eye to be clearly seen by the radar and satellite imagery

Our thanks to www.theweatherchaser.com for the animation.

As Cyclone Yasi continues to move across inland Queensland weather analyst Philip Duncan talks about what happened earlier this morning, what the potential is for another cyclone behind Yasi and where the storm is heading now.

#YASI -- Cyclone Yasi has been downgraded further to a category 2 tropical cyclone, reduced from the category 5 it reached last night.

However WeatherWatch.co.nz says the winds are still destructive - and despite the wind easing the rain will not, with torrential rain continuing to fall across much of Queensland.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology says Yasi will continue to weaken as it moves in a west-southwesterly direction towards the Georgetown area during the morning.

As of 10am NZT winds were gusting to 155km/h, down from 205km/h at 8am and down from 295km/h at 3am.

Full details below...

Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi is nearing landfall and Queensland Preimier Anna Bligh has told Queenslanders that "this is only the beginning" of this cyclone's power.

#YASI -- BREAKING NEWS -- Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says a wave has tonight broken the record books again - just hours after the record had previously been broken.

On Wednesday afternoon a wave measuring 6.6 metres was recorded off the coast of Townsville.  At the time it was biggest wave in the area since records began in the 1970s.

#YASI -- Intense Tropical Cyclone Yasi is nearing landfall with severe gales now blasting the Queensland coastline along with huge seas - timed with high tide.

A wall of water that is both a storm surge combined with towering 12 metre high waves (high enough to swamp a Boeing 737) is moving into the coastline and will take with it beachfront homes and buildings and cause catastrophic flooding far worse than most rainstorms could create.

Along with the storm surge there will hurricane force winds, stronger than those of Hurricane Katrina when she made landfall near New Orleans in 2005.

Cyclone Yasi is 10 times bigger than the devastating Cyclone Larry which was also a category 5 cyclone that hit in March 2006.

We have extensive information below from the Bureau of Meteorology including the latest maps and some popular links which include Video, Audio and Streaming webcams. 

We will continue to provide frequent updates until it makes landfall.

#Yasi -- "If people on the coastline haven't heeded calls to evacuate to a safe place they may well not survive the night"

Below: Latest Maps, extensive news and weather readings.

WeatherWatch.co.nz has found a few webcams to watch live.

The webcams may not all continue due to powercuts expected in the next few hours.

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