Alfred was a tropical cyclone in the Coral Sea Monday evening Eastern time, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said in its latest advisory.
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.
All times on the map are Eastern. By The New York Times
What does the storm look like from above?
Satellite imagery can help determine the strength, size and cohesion of a storm. The stronger a storm becomes, the more likely an eye will form in the center. When the eye looks symmetrical, that often means the storm is not encountering anything to weaken it.
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.
Sources and notes
Tracking map Tracking data is from the National Hurricane Center. The map shows probabilities of at least 5 percent. The forecast is for up to five days, with that time span starting up to three hours before the reported time that the storm reaches its latest location. Wind speed probability data is not available north of 60.25 degrees north latitude.
Wind arrivals table Arrival times are generated from a New York Times analysis of National Hurricane Center data. Geographic locations use data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Natural Earth. Time zones are based on Google. The table shows predicted arrival times of sustained, damaging winds of 58 m.p.h. or more for select cities with a chance of such winds reaching them. If damaging winds reach a location, there is no more than a 10 percent chance that they will arrive before the “earliest reasonable” time and a 50 percent chance they will arrive before the “most likely” time.
Radar map Radar imagery is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via Iowa State University. These mosaics are generated by combining individual radar stations that comprise the NEXRAD network.
Storm surge map Storm surge data is from the National Hurricane Center. Forecasts only include the United States Gulf and Atlantic coasts, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The actual areas that could become flooded may differ from the areas shown on this map. This map accounts for tides, but not waves and not flooding caused by rainfall. The map also includes intertidal areas, which routinely flood during typical high tides.
Satellite map Imagery is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Japanese Meteorological Agency via the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere.
Precipitation map Data for multi-day forecasts or observed rainfall totals are from the National Weather Service. The 1-day forecast is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/24/world/australia/alfred-map-path-tracker.html
