Key Events
- 1h ago1 hours agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 3:59pm
- 1h ago1 hours agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 3:55pm
- 2h ago2 hours agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 3:52pm
1h agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 4:03pm
ABC Emergency will broadcast regular warnings on ABC Radio. You can find more information, including a map of all the warnings, by clicking here.
- Brisbane: 612 AM and Digital Radio
- Gold Coast: 91.7 FM and Digital Radio
- Sunshine Coast: 90.3 FM or 95.3 FM
- Lismore, Tweed and surrounds: 94.5 FM
- Grafton and surrounds: 738 AM
- Coffs Harbour and Mid-North Coast: 92.3 FM and 684 AM
- Port Macquarie: 95.5 FM
- Taree: 756 AM
You can also find these stations on the ABC Listen App
3m agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 5:48pm
The most recent BOM update, just before 2am, says people in the warning area, between Double Island Point in Qld and Grafton in NSW, should be aware of the following hazards:
- heavy rainfall developing over southeast Qld and northeastern NSW
- heavy to locally intense rainfall which may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding, which will occur near and south of the cyclone centre as Alfred approaches and crosses the coast.
- the BOM warns that because Alfred is a slow-moving system, there is a very high risk of significant impacts due to widespread heavy rainfall over the coming days.
- a dangerous storm tide for the coastal foreshore.
- abnormally high tides are likely to continue causing minor flooding between Cape Moreton and Yamba.
- damaging surf leading to significant beach erosion.
- gales with damaging wind gusts up to 120 kilometres an hour are developing near the coast between Cape Moreton and Cape Byron.
- gales with damaging wind gusts up to 120 kilometres an hour are expected to develop across the remaining southeast Queensland and northeastern NSW coastal and island communities through Friday morning.
- destructive wind gusts of up to 155 kilometres an hour may develop about coastal and island locations near, and to the south of, the cyclone centre.
20m agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 5:31pm
While they may not have issued an update, the Essential Energy outage map has been updated and there are a large number of power outages from Ballina to Coolangatta. Whilst I still have power when you look at the current map it looks like barely anyone does!
– Julie
Thank you Julie, I had a look and you’re right!
(Essential Energy)
The most recent update on the Essential Energy website says 10,000 homes and businesses are without power, but that’s from 4.30pm yesterday.
We’ll keep an eye out for an update!
23m agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 5:28pm
Hard to sleep right now with the wind and rain whipping around our homes (3.15am; Gold Coast Hinterland). Really appreciate you being there giving us updates through the night. Thank you so much! You’re doing a fabulous job!!
– Emma
Thank you Emma! We’re glad you’re all following along and hope you’re all staying safe. We have more coverage to come.
25m agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 5:26pm
The skies over southeast Queensland are largely empty as airlines fly around Cyclone Alfred, as this pic from Flightradar 24 shows.
(Flightradar24)
Brisbane Airport is among centres to have suspended all passenger services, with the airport saying it it will reopen when safe to do so.
Gold Coast Airport is also closed.
38m agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 5:14pm
Senior meteorologist Angus Hines from the Bureau of Meteorology has shared this update with the ABC:
Wind information contained within the bureau’s hazard products is made up of three key parts — average wind speed, wind gusts and wind direction.
The average wind speed is the average speed of winds that continue for a sustained period (10 minutes), while a gust is a sudden and brief increase in the wind speed that lasts from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.
Wind direction is also important. Wind direction is always written as the direction the wind blows from (i.e. a westerly wind blows from west to east). Damage is often greater, especially to trees, if wind blows from a direction that is not normally experienced by that landscape. Damage can also be exacerbated by rain, which loosens the soil when it’s wet and adds weight to trees and infrastructure.
During a cyclone, not everyone’s experience with the wind will be the same.
Factors like the topography and altitude of where you live, whether it is open or surrounded by trees, and the density of buildings surrounding your area can all impact your experience of how strong the wind is.
Although the strongest winds are near the eye (or centre) of the cyclone, damaging winds can extend hundreds of kilometres from the centre in each direction.
The BOM has provided this information to the ABC and it is accurate as of 1:41am AEST. Please refer to the BOM website for the latest information.
1h agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 4:31pm
Winds are starting to pick up across coastal areas of southeast Queensland and northeastern New South Wales, according to the BOM’s weather stations.
At Cape Byron, a wind gust of 111 kilometres an hour was recorded at 3:17am AEDT.
The 10-minute average is 83 kilometres an hour there.
Just north of the border, a 100-kilometre-an-hour gust was recorded at Coolangatta at 1:43am AEST today.
Meanwhile, closer to Brisbane a wind gust of 85 kilometres an hour was recorded at Cape Moreton just after midnight.
It’s definitely getting windy.
1h agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 4:05pm
A few other things in the latest warning just before 2am of note:
- Tropical Cyclone Alfred is still a category 2 — the Bureau forecasts it will remain at that level until the centre starts to hit the coast. It’s packing winds of 95 kilometres an hour, with gusts up to 130 kilometres an hour.
- Alfred is still on track to cross the coast on Friday night or early Saturday morning.
- Warnings remain in place for heavy rainfall, locally intense rain fall leading to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding, a danegerous storm tide, abnormally high tides, damaging surf, damaging wind gusts and destructive wind guys.
1h agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 3:59pm
The Bureau of Meteorology has just released a new warning for 1:53am.
Here’s the cyclone track map:
(Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
The warning zone remains the same: from Double Island Point in Queensland to Grafton in New South Wales, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina but not including Grafton.
BOM is warning Tropical Cyclone Alfred moving slowly towards the southeast Queensland coast. Rainfall is increasing and wind impacts are expected to increase overnight.
1h agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 3:55pm
While we wait for the latest 2am update from the Bureau of Meteorology, let’s have a look at the power network.
The provider for the northern NSW region hasn’t provided an update since Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Energex, the electricity supplier for Queensland, is reporting widespread disruption to its power network on the Gold Coast.
More than 20,000 customers were without power as of 1:45am, of which more than 17,500 were on the Gold Coast.
The Energex outage finder says damage from the cyclone is the cause of many of the unplanned outages, affecting large parts of the Gold Coast hinterland, parts of Tweed Heads and Burleigh Waters.
(Supplied: Energex outage finder)
A further 2,000 properties are without power in the Redlands area, on Brisbane’s bayside.
2h agoThu 6 Mar 2025 at 3:52pm
We’re on board to bring you the latest developments as Tropical Cyclone Alfred slowly makes its way to the south-east Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales coasts.
Already the Bureau of Meteorology says parts of the coast are being impacted by damaging winds.
We’ll have the latest warnings from the BOM in a moment.
