Cyclone Gaja in Tamil Nadu: Why Bay of Bengal storms are more severe

We're now much more confident that cyclone will miss the Queensland coast, over the next few days at least. Having said that, a direct hit is still a slim chance, and we're still expecting strong winds and large waves. Here's an animation of why we can be more confident. Alfred is set to continue south today and tomorrow, before taking an awkward curve towards the coast around Saturday. Then.. a strong upper trough (shown below) is forecast to sweep through from Sunday into early next week, and