Weather wanes

I have found it harder to blog any reports and follow Cyclone Monica (originally a category 5) as it made its way through Arnhem Land and the small islands off the coast of Darwin, NT, and headed for Darwin. After my initial concern and facination with the destructive power of Cyclones Larry (Queensland) and Glenda (Western Australia), I found myself too busy to follow the cyclone's tracks via the Bureau of Meteorology's satelite imagery as I did previously.

It seems that after threatening to hit Darwin harder than Cyclone Tracey did those many decades ago, Monica has now weakened as it by-passed Darwin and makes its way inland. Most importantly, there appears to be few reports of bad damage on the small islands off the coast, where predominantly Aboriginal communities live.

You can follow the cyclone's progress via the ABC News website: as it's about to hit, weakens and spares Darwin, leaves little damage on the islands, and chases the evacuees from Darwin inland. The Northern Territory must be breathing a collective sigh of relief.