What is a tropical Cyclone?

image from ​The NOAA-20 satellite's false-color image of five tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere. NASA

  Sun is shining but our temperature is more seasonable at 10:00 AM it is at 22 F(-5C) But there isn’t any wind.  That wind at 30 MPH during the night sounded cold.  Stay warm, stay safe. 

I heard from Australia family and friends about their weather.  This is what one wrote.  Friday Feb 28 the temperature got to 30+ C(88F) They found it got warmer later in the day.  Saturday’s temperature here in Sale is supposed to be 26C(78F). I wish we could get some rain as the ground is really dry.  The trees on our nature strip are starting to change colour.  Some already are a burgundy and yellow colour.  This author loves autumn for planting.  Plants seem to grow before they become dormant over winter. Mind you we don’t get snow here in Sale.  But sometimes it sure feels like we do.  The wind brings in the cold. Stay cool, stay safe

For the family at Cairns, Queensland, Aust.  They have very warm and hot weather.  I had noticed in the ocean bad weather but they told me the storm on radar is pretty far away south east.  It also looks like the storm is dissipating.  It is a tropical cyclone, and this is what I found out about those.  Stay really cool, stay safe

Alfred was a tropical cyclone in the Coral Sea.
The tropical cyclone had sustained wind speeds of 75 miles per hour, which would make it a Category 1 hurricane if it were in the Atlantic Ocean.
By The New York Times
Only about a quarter of the Earth’s tropical cyclones form in the Southern Hemisphere. When these storms have sustained winds of 74 m.p.h. or greater, they would be called hurricanes in the Atlantic, but here, they are called cyclones. The only other difference is that, in the Southern Hemisphere, cyclones spin clockwise (hurricanes spin counterclockwise).
Cyclones can strike eastern Africa, primarily Madagascar, as well as the western, northern and eastern coasts of Australia and surrounding island nations.
The season here runs opposite the rest of the world, typically beginning in late October and running through May. Peaks in activity vary depending on the region, but normally, activity is highest in late February and early March. Taken from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/24/world/australia/alfred-map-path-tracker.html
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Just found the image I wanted from Newsweek, and here is what they had to say about tropical cyclones.
Five tropical cyclones have been captured in one striking false-color satellite image released Friday by NASA.
The shot, which covers the Indian Ocean and parts of the South Pacific, was taken on Wednesday by the NOAA-20 environmental satellite.
In the South Pacific, cyclones Alfred and Seru can be seen roiling off of the coast of Australia, while the Indian Ocean played host to Honde, Garance and a fading Bianca.
Such a proliferation of storms is rare but not unprecedented, NASA noted, with meteorologists attributing the display in part to warm sea surface temperatures and weak wind shear conditions.
The NOAA-20 satellite's false-color image of five tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere. NASA
"A marine heat wave has lingered off of Western Australia since September 2024—and anomalously high sea surface temperatures warmed in the area in late February 2025," NASA said in a statement.
"For the South Pacific, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a higher-than-average likelihood of severe tropical cyclones this season due to expected warm ocean temperatures."
In the Southern Hemisphere, the space agency notes, the tropical cyclone season typically runs from November to April.
"The image depicts infrared signals known as brightness temperature, which are useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures [white and purple] from the warmer surface below [yellow and orange]," NASA explained.
In the South Pacific, Seru reached Category 1 strength (with wind speeds between 74-95 mph) for a short period of time, while Alfred was in Category 2 (96-110 mph) at the time NOAA-20 took this image, although it reached Category 4 (130-156 mph) the next day.
Both storms remained offshore, although Alfred's presence translated to hazardous condition warnings along the coast of Queensland.
A third tropical cyclone—Rae—was also active to the east of Australia, beyond the edge of the image, weakening after dropping heavy rain on Fiji.
On the other side of Australia, Bianca was weakening to tropical storm status, having reached Category 3 (with winds of 111-129 mph) the day before, although it was far enough offshore to have affected neither mainland Australia nor nearby island communities.
Elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, however, storms were having a greater impact. The island of Mauritius was forced to close its airport on Wednesday as Garance neared, with winds reaching Category 2 and strengthening to Category 3 the next day.
Honde, meanwhile, traced the south of Madagascar, with sustained winds speeds reaching 69 mph.
Taken from https://www.newsweek.com/nasa-image-tropical-cyclones-six-paficic-indian-ocean-2037991
Till next time this is Becky Litterer, Becky’s Greenhouse, Dougherty Iowa [email protected] 641-794-3337   cell 641-903-9365  Facebook Becky Kerndt Litterer, Becky’s Greenhouse