The occasional political commentator claimed in a series of posts on X that “the mainstream media and BOM got it wrong again,” when predicting and mapping Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s path and severity. “But remember, take their predictions for 2030 and beyond seriously,” he said. “Category 2? Morphing into category 3? Scaring people into clearing out grocery stores leaving other families with nothing … msm (mainstream media) is a virus,” the basketballer added. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred made landfall over southeast Queensland on Saturday evening and weakened into a trough that extended into NSW. More than 400 people commented on his post, many criticising his view. “Hey big fella, 20+ hours without power in my suburb and now flooding. Looks like BOM got it right. Stay in your lane,” said one commenter. “Just checking to see if Andrew Bogut’s got any more updates on the BOM today? Or has he retired from being a weather reporter?” another added. “Yes storms change, if it wasn’t for the BOM you wouldn’t know it was there in the first place.” Despite Mr Bogut’s dig at the weather bureau and “mainstream media”, there are currently 118,000 homes and businesses without power in Queensland, down from a peak of 400,000 over the weekend. NSW SES have responded to more than 7000 incidents since the onset of the cyclone late last week. The BOM defended its integrity and asserted the accuracy of its predictions and mapping of TC Alfred. “Tropical cyclones can follow erratic paths and predicting their movement is complicated. Scientific understanding of these complex weather systems is continually developing,” said a BOM spokesman. “Tropical Cyclone Alfred, for example, completed a full loop on the evening of the 5th of March as it tracked towards the SE Queensland coast. This, coupled with a slowing of its progress along the forecast track, meant that Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s landfall occurred later than initially forecast, but in line with consistently updated forecasts,” he said. “The ability to predict cyclone movement has greatly improved over the past few decades. Science has improved, there are faster computers and there has been a huge increase in satellite observations. The key is understanding the flow of the winds in the surrounding environment. These winds guide the speed and direction of the overall movement of a cyclone.”