In Today's Local Newspaper

Any travel plans we had for next week may have been put on hold. This was in today's local newspaper:

THE Sunshine Coast is on cyclone watch this weekend as a severe tropical low-pressure system off the Queensland coast threatens to bring wind, rain and huge swells to our doorsteps.

Meteorologists are yet to officially recognise Cyclone Odette, but the low-pressure system sitting 450km north-east of Mackay has already led some weather commentators to predict it could become the most dangerous cyclone to hit the region in 40 years.

Should the system form into a cyclone, most believe it will begin making its way south and arrive near the Sunshine Coast early next week.

Perennially cautious observers at the Bureau of Meteorology like Peter Otto yesterday said the system could potentially turn into the biggest cyclone to visit southern Queensland in more than a decade.

Meanwhile, other forecasters like Swellnet’s Ben Matson have been quicker to make devastating historical comparisons after witnessing a quiet start to the cyclone season, from February and April.

He believes the system could become the most significant weather event since Cyclone Dinah in 1967, which lashed the Sunshine Coast, inundating Bli Bli cane farms and leaving holiday makers on Noosa’s Hastings Street to wade through knee-deep water.

While most observers, including Mr Matson, are careful to avoid being alarmist, their concerns may prove to be genuine if the EC forecasting model is to be believed.

That model predicts the low pressure system will be trapped by a high pressure system near the Fraser Coast, a worst case scenario for Sunshine Coast residents that would deliver disastrous heavy wind and rains and a huge swell.

The Daily’s surf forecaster Mike Perry is another who chooses to play down worst-case scenarios, but he reminded people that cyclone or not, big tides with the full moon and a pre-existing easterly swell would combine to create dangerous conditions on Coast beaches in the coming days.

“Most likely it will become a cyclone ... and come down the coast a little ways to the south-west and bear out to sea to the south-east before eventually heading towards New Zealand as an extra tropical system,” he said.

“If that happens, there will be for the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast firstly strong north-easterly winds and then very strong south-easterly winds and a rapid rise in north-easterly swell exceeding two metres and possibly quite a bit more.”

Mr Perry’s job is to bring smiles to the faces of swell-hunting surfers worldwide, but he warned the strong swell generated by the system would create hazardous water conditions best avoided by even the most fearless board riders.

It won’t just be surfers watching the system’s progress with interest, as the Coast’s 200 active State Emergency Service volunteers brace themselves for the approaching wild weather.

Caloundra City’s SES deputy controller Janet Scott said it was important for homeowners to clear gutters to prevent water leaks and to remove loose objects in yards that could become lethal missiles if they were picked up by wild winds.