Cyclone Ului 2nd South Pacific Storm in Week

(Dive Travel Business News - March 17, 2010) -- Tourists on Australia's  Heron Island and Lady Elliot islands in the Great Barrier Reef were told to evacuate Wednesday March 17 as Tropical Cyclone Ului, makes its way toward Australia's Queensland coast. Ului is expected to make Australian landfall between Rockhampton and Townsville on March 20 as a Category 4, bringing estimated 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 138 km/h (86 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.

Cyclone Uli storm is currently moving westward over an area of high sea surface temperatures with sustained winds of up to 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour) and gusts up to 162 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour), Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said. 

Cyclone Ului, that first travelled to South of Solomon Islands, is said to have broken the record for the most intense ever tropical cyclone in the South Pacific Region.  On Monday March 15, the storm downgraded from an extremely dangerous Category 5 cyclone with sustained winds of 140 knots (260 km/hr, 160 mph) before dealing the Solomon Islands a glancing blow as a Category 4. Ului had maximum sustained winds of 130 knots (240 kilometers per hour, 150 miles per hour) and gusts up to 160 knots (300 km/hr, 180 mph) as it passed by the Solomons. Initial news reports say that some homes sustained moderate damage, but no one was injured.

This is the second powerful cyclone in the South Pacific region in one week: Fiji is still under a state of emergency after Cyclone Tomas pounded it's northern islands for more than three days. Although it packed less powerful winds, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), Tomas continues to stretch across a larger area. Ului is considered more compact and more powerful.
 

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