February 2024's Hazardous Webinar was held on Tuesday 27 February on the recent real-time data collection during Cyclone Jasper and Cyclone Kirrily.
Watch the recording below.
Speakers:
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Dr Matthew Mason – University of Queensland and Natural Hazards Research Australia. A Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering, Dr Mason's research expertise lies in the field of natural hazard engineering where his interest include: catastrophe risk modelling (tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, floods); wind engineering; wind tunnel testing; boundary layer meteorology; and observational meteorology. Dr Mason's also strongly interested in understanding and mitigating the impact of severe weather on the built environment, through the application of advanced risk modelling and assessment tools.
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Dr David Henderson – Cyclone Testing Station, James Cook University. David is an engineer at the Cyclone Testing Station (CTS) at James Cook University. Joining the CTS in 1991, he has so far demonstrated a complete lack of initiative to go somewhere else. David has broken everything from roofing screws to complete houses, and conducted post-disaster damage investigations in Australia and overseas. He has developed vulnerability models for residential and commercial buildings and is involved in the development of Australian Standards, and led research for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC on the most cost-effective way to retrofit older homes to meet current building codes in cyclonic regions.
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Francesca Kirby, Pricing Manager - Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation, is an actuary working for Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation (ARPC). ARPC administers the federal government cyclone reinsurance pool, which aims to increase insurance affordability and availability in high cyclone risk areas. The cyclone pool doesn’t charge profit margins and so reduces the overall cost of cyclone insurance in Australia.
When cyclones are forecast to hit the Queensland coast, the Surface Weather Information Relay and Logging Network (SWIRLnet) swings into action. Comprised of six portable weather stations that are strategically positioned in advance of landfalling cyclones, the network captures research-grade wind data that provides an understanding of near-surface wind speeds during a cyclone, enabling observations of wind speed to be directly utilised in the assessment of building standards performance and for assisting in raising risk awareness for the community.
The network was first deployed in 2014 and in this Hazardous Webinar, Dr David Henderson (Cyclone Testing Station, James Cook University) and Dr Matthew Mason (University of Queensland) discussed the recent deployments of the network for Cyclone Jasper (December 2023) and Cyclone Kirrily (January 2024), and highlighted how Natural Hazards Research Australia has assisted in helping to streamline data acquisition and ensure this valuable data is available in real time.
The Surface Weather Information Relay and Logging Network is a partnership between James Cook University and the University of Queensland. Learn more about the Surface Weather Information Relay and Logging Network, including viewing the recent data from Cyclone Kirrily in Townsville.