A dead shark found in Ayr, Queensland, Australia after Cyclone Debbie made landfall this week (Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Twitter) 
 
 The Australian state of Queensland was hit hard this week by a vicious tropical cyclone. And while there has been property damage, thankfully no one was seriously injured by Cyclone Debbie. Well, no one, unless you count this 5-foot long shark that was found dead this morning near the floodwaters. 
 
 
 
 The bull shark was found in a puddle in the town of Ayr, just north of where Cylcone Debbie made landfall. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services shared photos of the poor shark on Twitter, warning people to stay out of the flood waters that are currently swamping the area. 
 
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 But nobody seems to want to call this what it is: a real life sharknado. The sharknado is, of course, when a cyclone that has become infested with sharks exacts destruction on a populated area. The rare phenomenon gained public attention after the 2013 documentary Sharknado. 
 
 Heavy rains are continuing in the region and emergency crews are still performing rescue operations for people trapped in the flooding. The hardest hit areas of Queensland have seen over 15 inches of rain and roughly 50,000 homes have been without power. As many as 400 schools will remain closed tomorrow. 
 
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 Sharks and schools aside, Australians were perhaps most devastated when they learned that the chaos of Cyclone Debbie had caused the beloved XXXX Brewery to catch fire on Tuesday. But Australians have been told not to worry—the fire won’t affect the beer supply. 
 
 Which is good. Because after the flood water recedes everyone is going to need a drink to tell the story of where they were when a sharknado hit Australia. Because it did. This was a sharknado. Don’t question science. 
 
 [7 News Australia] ||||| Thousands of residents in North Queensland have fled their homes as the tropical cyclone strengthens into a category 4 system. 
 
 North Queensland is bracing as Cyclone Debbie is set to cross the coast as a destructive category 4. 
 
 Cyclone Debbie is expected to bring 120km/h winds and gusts of 240kmh, with tens of thousands of Queenslanders urged to evacuate. 
 
 Are you a New Zealander in the cyclone's path? Email us at newstips@stuff.co.nz. 
 
 HIMAWARI-8 Cyclone Debbie is now a category 3 storm and likely to strengthen further. 
 
 Cyclone Debbie was upgraded to a category 4 several hours before making landfall between Ayr and Cape Hillsborough - north of Mackay - about 9am (12pm NZ Time) on Tuesday. 
 
 READ MORE: 
 
 * Cyclone Debbie: Woman dies in crash 
 
 * Evacuations ahead of Cyclone Debbie 
 
 Ayr, Bowen, Hamilton Island, Airlie Beach and Townsville were likely to be in the firing line. 
 
 People living in low-lying areas in Mackay were urged to evacuate on Monday afternoon due to a predicted storm surge of up to 2.5 metres, with up to 25,000 people affected and residents told to prepare for flooding. 
 
 Police Commissioner Ian Stewart urged people to drive to the conditions while getting out of the Mackay area, and also take care of their neighbours. 
 
 "That's the Queensland, the Australian way," he said. 
 
 A 31-year-old woman died in a car crash at Cannon Valley, near Proserpine, about 8am on Monday, with the incident linked to weather. 
 
 Residents in the Midge Point, Whitsunday, Burdekin, Cungulla and Cleveland Palms areas have also been told to evacuate. 
 
 People living on Palm Island were advised to stay inside their homes from sunset until emergency services advised the weather was clear. 
 
 Widespread daily rainfall totals of 150-250mm, with isolated falls of 500mm, were expected to lead to major river flooding over a broad area next week. 
 
 Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said during an 8pm update the Bureau of Meteorology had categorised the cyclone a category 4 in intensity. 
 
 "The residents of Bowen at this stage would feel a big impact from this cyclone," she said earlier in the day. 
 
 "I would rather take these precautionary measures now than have people's lives put at risk." 
 
 CYCLONE MEMORIES 
 
 Steve Siltanen, who lived through Cyclone Larry in Innisfail, was bunkered down in the Ayr Cyclone Shelter, dreading what would become of his low-set, old, beachside home. 
 
 During Larry's ferocious power, a tree blew through his window, and a gas bottle into his hallway even though neither he nor his neighbours had gas. 
 
 "It was scary. The noise, just like jet engines," he said. 
 
 "... the power of the wind was so bad, once the roof come off, everything was flying past." 
 
 The 52-year-old Alva Beach resident, his partner and child, were praying they would avoid a repeat, as the cyclone turned further south, away from Ayr. 
 
 Danella Noah was almost as concerned about the old house in the Rita Island evacuation zone where her grandmother had lived since she was a teenager. 
 
 "I'm pretty scared," she said. 
 
 "I don't know what will happen and what will Ayr look like after it." 
 
 MILITARY RESOURCES READY 
 
 Australian Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin said Defence was well-positioned to provide immediate assistance to communities within the storm zone, in co-ordination with state and local disaster management authorities, if requested. 
 
 As a precaution, HMAS Choules left Sydney on Monday for Queensland, with two Navy MRH90 helicopters deployed to Oakey. 
 
 Air Force aircraft in Townsville, Amberley and Darwin were also on standby to deliver essential supplies and equipment. 
 
 More than 800 energy workers were on standby to help restore power when flood waters receded and the debris was cleared, with crews deployed from the Ipswich area on Monday. 
 
 Experts said the biggest threat from cyclones, such as Debbie, was typically huge storm surges that could inundate low-lying coastal regions, rather than the winds. 
 
 "More people have historically died from storm surges than the wind damage," Jonathan Nott, a specialist in extreme weather at James Cook University. 
 
 "[Yasi] literally swept houses ... off their foundations and they were totally gone," Professor Nott said. "Others were destroyed." 
 
 The cyclone was expected to make landfall close to the 9.45am (12.45pm NZ Time) high tide timing at Bowen, according to the weather bureau, which could intensify the storm's impact. 
 
 Taxi drivers in Townsville, Mackay, the Whitsundays, Burdekin and Ayr offered to evacuate residents for free. 
 
 Police door-knocking Cungulla and Cape Cleveland, about 40 minutes south of Townsville, were telling residents to leave but not forcing them out. 
 
 They suggested fewer than one in five residents had elected to stay. 
 
 Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said authorities could not force people to leave. 
 
 "If people choose to remain in harm's way and something happens, don't expect us to come and get you," she said. 
 
 Bowen residents were bracing themselves for what they said would be the worst cyclone to hit the town since the 1950s, with thousands of people told to evacuate. 
 
 Bowen has a population of about 10,000 but space for only 800 in its cyclone shelter, prompting a warning for residents in flood-prone areas to leave the region before Cyclone Debbie crossed the coast. 
 
 Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor Andrew Willcox said people who could not leave should stay with friends or family in "high, dry places". 
 
 More than 100 schools were closed along the coast and shopfronts were being boarded up and filled with sandbags. 
 
 Mackay and Townsville airports have been closed. 
 
 In Bowen, Graham Wilson spray painted his white picket fence with a message for Cyclone Debbie: "Cyclone Debbie bring it on Bowen is not a pussy town do your best you got". 
 
 Wilson said he painted the sign to lift people's spirits. 
 
 "It's basically to put a smile on people's faces. Bowen's a lot bigger than Cyclone Debbie, so give us what you've got," he said. 
 
 But Wilson, who has lived in Bowen for 40 years, said he did not want to sound unconcerned as the town would likely sustain serious damage. 
 
 "We have not had a cyclone like this since '58," he said. 
 
 Stefan Seyffer and Vincent White helped other residents fill sandbags and said many people living in evacuation zones were choosing to stay because of their pets. 
 
 "We've got an elderly lady living next door so we'll stay to help," Seyffer said. 
 
 YouTube user Aussie Mechand Tech Junkies has been livestreaming Debbie from his Midge Point residence. 
 
 He began streaming at 4pm and will continue until the storm is over or the power cuts out. Currently, his live video shows torrential rain hitting Midge Point, north of Mackay. 
 
 FLOOD RISKS 
 
 Cyclone Yasi, which struck north Queensland in 2011, powered a storm surge that reached 7.5 metres between Cardwell and Tully Heads, akin to a tsunami, said David King, the director of the Centre for Disaster Studies at James Cook University in Townsville. 
 
 Storm surges "bring in flooding", Professor King said. "The water moves in at a great speed." 
 
 The deep low pressure at the eye of a cyclone raises ocean levels. The strong winds also whip up waves that ride on the top, with the impact intensified if the storm's arrival coincides with a high tide. 
 
 On current forecasts, the storm is predicted to make landfall at 9 am local time, or close to the 9.45 am high tide timing at Bowen, according to the bureau. 
 
 "More people have historically died from storm surges than the wind damage," Jonathan Nott, a specialist in extreme weather also at James Cook University (JCU), said, noting the Great Bhola Cyclone killed half a million people in Bangladesh in 1970. 
 
 "[Yasi] literally swept houses ... off their foundations and they were totally gone," Professor Nott said. "Others were destroyed." 
 
 "We could be looking at 3-4 metres with Debbie as it intensifies," he said. At this point, it may cross the coast around mid-tide, although the timing could change if the storm's track quickens or slows by just a couple of kilometres per hour. 
 
 Jeff Kepert, head of severe weather research at the bureau, said it's long been understood that flooding poses a greater risk for people living in a cyclone's path. 
 
 "You hide from the wind but you flee from the water," Dr Kepert said, citing a long-standing view. 
 
 Shifts in the forecast track of just 30 kilometres can add a metre in storm-surge height if the storm hits a bay rather than a headland. 
 
 While the science of cyclones has advanced rapidly in recent decades, more improvements will be introduced by the end of 2017, Dr Kepert said. These changes, such as better modelling, will allow forecasters to give better "worst-case" predictions for coastal inundation and the strength of cyclones. 
 
 "Intensity forecasts have scarcely improved at all," compared with other recent advances, he said. 
 
 RAIN, REEF 
 
 Heavy rainfall, perhaps as much as 400 millimetres, could also lead to inundation particularly if it combines with swollen rivers and high tides. 
 
 "Townsville had a very poor wet season," so the catchment is really dry ahead of Cyclone Debbie, Professor King said. 
 
 Both professors said cyclones such as Debbie were important for bringing rainfall to inland parts of Queensland and also for helping to ease the threat of bleaching and death of coral reefs. 
 
 Much of the corals of the central Great Barrier Reef appear to be bleaching this year, adding to the damage from last year's massive bleaching event. 
 
 CLIMATE SIGNAL 
 
 Research in recent years indicates that climate change reducing the numbers of cyclones forming off Queensland but they are becoming stronger when they do form. 
 
 Tropical cyclones leave an historical mark on the landscape in part because of that storm surge. Unlike the extra-tropical east coast low that hit Sydney last year and caused large-scale beach erosion at places such as Collaroy, tropical tempests tend to dump large amounts of sand inland, Professor Nott said. 
 
 JCU researchers are going to be in the field collecting data on the wind speed and strength of the storm surge but also the chemistry of the rain dumped on the region. 
 
 Interestingly, rain and water vapour from cyclones has a distinct isotopic signature, with most of the oxygen-18 isotopes rained out because of the intense convection of the event and how high the molecules rise within the storm. 
 
 Using the chemical record within limestone another other sources, Professor Nott and other scientists have been able to show that cyclones are now the fewest in at least. 800 years for the Cairns region and 1500 years for Western Australia. 
 
 "We've already been able to show that climate change is already affecting the behaviour of tropical cyclones in Australia," Professor Nott said. 
 
 "One of major impacts is a very marked increase in the intensity and a marked decrease in the frequency [of cyclones]," he said. "This really started occurring quite dramatically in 1970. 
 
 Most other regions of the world can expect both more cyclones and stronger ones, so on that score Queensland at least be luckier than some. 
 
 However, given the positive impacts from cyclones, having fewer such storms may not be such a good thing. 
 
 "It doesn't sound very good for coral reefs and it doesn't sound very good for rain-penetrating systems getting into the interior of Queensland," Professor Nott said. 
 
 RECORD HEAT 
 
 While meteorologists are focused on Cyclone Debbie, a slew of heat records are being set across inland Australia 
 
 On Sunday, three states set late-season records for maximum temperatures and more may be set before the heatwave ebbs. 
 
 Ceduna reached 44.6 degrees, the hottest for this late in the year for South Australia. 
 
 In NSW, Tibooburra closed 41.6 degrees, while Birdsville in Queensland touched 43 degrees. 
 
 Wilcannia on Monday broke the record again, with 44 degrees as of 3.50 pm. Birdsville also beat Sunday's mark with 43.3 degrees reached so far. 
 
 "We've had very hot conditions in central Australia for about a week now," Blair Trewin, senior bureau climatologist, said, noting that Alice Springs had days above 38 degrees since last Monday and about three weeks above 35 degees. 
 
 Birdsville topped 40 degrees on Monday for a seventh day in a row, matching the record for March, with another two days forecast. 
 
 Dr Trewin said there was unlikely to be a direct connection between the record warmth and cyclone Debbie, although regions to the north of the storm will likely see unusually warm weather as westerlies drag in inland heat. 
 
 Cairns, for instance, had 33.6 degrees on Sunday, or three degrees above the March average.
– Emergency crews traipsing through the Australian town of Ayr after Cyclone Debbie made landfall came across a rather odd sight Thursday: a shark roadblock. The 5-foot-long bull shark, surrounded by little more than a puddle, had washed up on a road and died, reports the West Australian. And it wasn't the only high-profile animal to succumb to the storm, which Gizmodo is now calling "a real life sharknado." A battered cockatoo that became famous around Australia after a photographer rescued it from a tree on Tuesday has also died, though it initially showed signs of improvement, reports the BBC.