Andrew Tupper

Hi all,

1) On Monday, the Northern Territory News had 'Cyclone Takes Rain Away'
(put that into an 80 point sans serif font if you want the full effect) on
its front page.  We often talk about this to the media; that cyclones
'concentrate' the weather around themselves, and it's a point well
understood by the public here.  Therefore, yesterday when the monsoon
trough flared up as 'Chris' weakened (check out the Berrimah radar this
morning), it was easy to convey the impression that we stole the rain back
from the cyclone.

My question is; are there any studies which show exactly what happens in
the broader environment when an intense cyclone makes landfall?  Is it
reasonable, for example, to make a forecast (as opposed to a glib
post-analysis for the media) that activity will fire along an associated
trough as the cyclone weakens?

2) Willy Willies: John, you forgot to mention the authority on Life In The
Colonies, Captain W.E.Johns.

This is from 'Biggles in Australia', 1955 (set in Darwin and Broome).

(Air Commodore Raymond is briefing Biggles on how Erich von Stalhein (the
evil guy, in case you hadn't worked it out) has turned up in Australia...)

"A few weeks ago north-west Australia was visited by one of those
devastating storms which we call a hurricane but are known locally as
willie-willies.  They do immense damage, both at sea and ashore...."

and (in the narrative a few pages later, near Broome)
"As willie-willies, with their hundred and twenty miles an hour fury, come in broadly from a
northerly direction, it was possible to form a rough idea of the most
probably direction of the island on which von Stalhein's ship had been cast
away..."