Cyclone Anthony lurks off the coast
The weather bureau has signalled more wet weather and cyclones are on the way

THE wild summer weather, caused by the La Nina phenomenon, was showing no sign of abating yesterday, with a cyclone and a tropical low expected to bring more severe conditions.

Warnings of strong winds and high seas follow the death of a 63-year-old man at Stanwell Park, south of Sydney, on Friday after a sandbank collapsed and a rip dragged him out to sea.

With just over a month left of summer, the Bureau of Meteorology has signalled more wet weather and cyclones are on the way, following record-breaking floods in Queensland and on the east coast.

The season has also seen snow on Mount Wellington in Hobart, a heatwave in Perth and hot conditions in Adelaide.

Yesterday, the bureau issued a high seas weather warning for areas off the northeast coast of Queensland as tropical cyclone Anthony lurked in the area.

The cyclone was responsible for heavy rainfall on the north Queensland coast at the weekend, and this led to minor flooding of three rivers.

BoM severe weather forecaster Michael Knepp said the cyclone posed no immediate threat to the Queensland coast and was moving in an easterly direction fairly rapidly at 35km/h.

Last night, the cyclone was about 565km east of Cairns.

Mr Knepp said there was a possibility the cyclone could turn around and head back west tomorrow or Wednesday.

He said more tropical cyclones were expected in March, their peak season.

While the rains have temporarily eased over southern Queensland, further flooding is expected in towns in western Queensland.

The weather bureau is warning of high flood levels in the southeast Queensland town of St George until at least the end of this week, while flood levels further downstream at Dirranbandi and Hebel will remain high well into next month.

Floodwaters at St George have dropped slowly over the past fortnight since a peak of 13.2m two weeks ago, but have returned with a peak yesterday of 12.5m.

In the Northern Territory, there was a severe weather warning in place last night as a tropical low approached just off the Kimberley coast. People in the western Darwin-Daly district area were warned to expect damaging winds, heavy rain, abnormally high tides and large waves.

Source: The Australian (24 January 2011)