Hurricanes and tropical storms

Australia: Category 4 Cyclone Narelle Makes Landfall in Queensland

Is Australia sleepwalking into a climate catastrophe or sabotaging its economy with green energy hysteria?

Published MAR 20

Australia: Category 4 Cyclone Narelle Makes Landfall in Queensland

Story

Above: An aerial view of Cyclone Narelle off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on March 19. Image credit: NASA

The Facts

Tropical Cyclone Narelle crossed the Queensland, Australia coast near Cape York Peninsula around 7 a.m. local time on Friday as a category four system, producing wind gusts of more than 250 km/h (155 mph), after being downgraded from category five shortly before landfall.
Daily Mail
Sky News Australia
NASA Earthdata
The Bureau of Meteorology warned of major hazards, including wind gusts exceeding 250 km/h, flash flooding and storm surge, with 24-hour rainfall totals of between 100mm (3.9 inches) and 350mm possible across parts of northern Queensland.
Guardian
The New York Times
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli described Narelle as potentially "the biggest system that many people have seen in living memory."
Sky News Australia
The New York Times
Sea surface temperatures in the Coral Sea were between 1°C (1.8°F) and 2°C (3.6°F) above average along Narelle's track, fueling its rapid intensification. Climate scientist Andrew Watkins noted the Coral Sea had recorded its hottest December, February, summer and calendar year on record.
PHYS
Guardian
After crossing Cape York Peninsula and weakening to category two, Narelle was forecast to re-intensify over the Gulf of Carpentaria before making a second landfall along the eastern Northern Territory late Saturday, prompting about 500 people to be airlifted from the remote community of Numbulwar.
The New York Times
Daily Mail
The Archer River near Lockhart River rose from five meters (16.4 feet) to 13 meters in six hours after Narelle's arrival, forcing a nearby family on a cattle station to shelter in a shipping container. About 230 homes lost power across the Cook Shire Council area.
Sky News Australia
Daily Mail

Sources Split

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The Spin

Climate-concerned narrative

Cyclones like Narelle add another layer of danger on top of an already strained risk landscape. Ignoring these compounding threats means dangerously mispricing the economic devastation heading straight for Australian cities. With wildfire risk nearly five times greater than the U.S. baseline, and climate warming set to drive damages up by 58%, the solution clearly lies in bringing warming down before it's too late.

The Climate Quant Substack by Ben McNeil on Substack

Climate-skeptic narrative

Australia is hemorrhaging $16 billion a year in renewable energy subsidies while productivity crumbles and energy reliability tanks — which is the real crisis, not cyclone season. Abandoning dependable coal and gas for intermittent wind and solar backed by wildly expensive batteries is economic self-sabotage dressed up as climate action. The global retreat from climate alarmism at COP30 proved this agenda is losing ground fast.

American Spectator