As you can see from the Weather Bureau tracking map the main core of the Cyclone went directly over Darwin.
My house is just to the left of the Leanyer black dot that you can see in the dark yellow band.
So basically, we bore the brunt of the Storm, as did most of the area around us.
Here's a video of the wind in our back yard.
(The pool still looks clean in this one)
Anyway, this is a rough idea of the storm. I might follow it up with some more pictures and videos.
It was only really 1 day but it was intense.
So generally speaking, a Category 2 Cyclone shouldn't be too much of a big deal, particularly in a place like Darwin that's supposedly susceptible to Cyclones on a fairly regular basis.
Obviously, Cyclone Tracy that completely devastated Darwin in 1974 is the benchmark of all Cyclones since.
Would you believe that Cyclone Marcus has the highest wind gusts recorded with the exception of Cyclone Tracy.
How can this be if it's only a Cat 2?
Ok, so I have a theory.
Most times, cyclones build slowly and steadily from tropical lows and progress through the stages of 1 to 5.
In the lower stages they are quite large in area, move quite slowly and generate fairly high levels of rainfall.
The damage they cause is normally not too bad and a lot of the time it comes from the rain causing flooding.
Marcus seemed to be a bit different. If you look at the radar and sat images, he seems to much smaller and tighter in his formation.
If you happen to be directly in front of the system, you're going to be belted, whereas if you're on the outer perimeter, you may not get much at all.
Even the Bureau image shows it as being small, tight and intense.
I think the fact that it was so small and tight, combined with the fairly fast ground speed it was travelling at, was the cause of the damage in the direct area of it's path. I think it just rudely bashed it's way through and kept going in an almost straight line.
Anyway, enough of my over the top theories - here's some real time images of what actually happened.!
Big Tree Down
Here's a video of our back yard showing we had no major problems.
