Severe Tropical Cyclone Alfred was a powerful, long-lived, and erratic tropical cyclone that brought severe effects to South East Queensland and the New South Wales North Coast. As the seventh named storm, and sixth severe tropical cyclone of the 2024–25 Australian region cyclone season, Alfred originated from a tropical low in the Coral Sea on 20 February.

Expected to be one of the most significant weather events in recent Australian history, Cyclone Alfred prompted watches, warnings and evacuations in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, a highly populated area which has rarely experienced direct impacts from tropical cyclones. However, the cyclone had less impact than expected, becoming a tropical low shortly before making landfall on 8 March; nevertheless, its heavy rainfall brought severe flooding to the region.

At least one fatality has been reported due to the cyclone, while four others are reportedly unaccounted for. Several injuries have been reported as well, mostly due to a road collision involving the Australian Defence Force that occurred during the height of the storm south of Lismore. Alfred caused an estimated US$1.25 billion economic loss.

On 20 February the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) started to publicly monitor a tropical disturbance that had developed about 350 km (215 mi) to the southwest of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. At this time, atmospheric convection was flaring over the eastern edge of the system's broad low-level circulation center, while it was located within an favourable environment for further development with low to moderate vertical wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures of 29–30 °C (84–86 °F). During that day, the system's low-level circulation centre consolidated as it moved south-eastwards, before the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) classified it as Tropical Low 22U, while it was located about 370 km (230 mi) to the northeast of Cooktown, Queensland. A high swell warning was put in place in southeastern Papua New Guinea. Over the next couple of days, the system continued to develop further as it generally moved eastwards, before the JTWC initiated advisories and classified it as Tropical Cyclone 22P on 22 February. Initially, the BOM did not immediately follow suit and kept it as a tropical low; however, around 16:20 AEST, the BoM reported that the system had developed into a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale and named it Alfred. Alfred formed alongside Cyclone Rae and Tropical Depression 10F, which will later develop into Cyclone Seru.

Over the next couple of days, the storm continued to move to the east and was upgraded to a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Australian scale at 16:00 AEST on 24 February. As Alfred then turned south, it also continued to intensify, attaining category 3 status on 26 February at 22:00 AEST. The next day, the BOM further upgraded Alfred to a category 4 cyclone as a small eye appeared on visible satellite imagery. Later that night, Alfred underwent an eyewall replacement cycle (ERC), prompting fluctuation between categories 3 and 4 on 1 March. The following afternoon, environmental conditions became unfavourable and strong wind shear caused Alfred to further weaken to a category 1 the following day. It then fluctuated between category 1 and category 2 status for the next three days as it meandered off the coast. On 3 March, Alfred transitioned into a subtropical cyclone, as it moved over cooler waters, interacting with a subtropical jet stream. Alfred abruptly turned west toward South East Queensland under its steering influence of a subtropical ridge on 4 March. However, on 5 March, environmental conditions became favourable environment for tropical re-development and the system was reclassified as a category 1 system on 6 March, before re-intensifying into a category 2. The Bureau of Meteorology predicted that landfall could occur between Friday afternoon and the early hours of 8 March. At 23:30 AEST (13:30 UTC) on 7 March, Alfred made landfall on Moreton Island, with winds of 75 km/h (45 mph). At 06:45 AEST on 8 March, Alfred was downgraded to a tropical low before crossing the mainland. The low then stalled near Brible Island and began to transition back into a subtropical low. At 9pm AEST, Alfred made landfall near Brisbane, before dissipating on 9 March.

The cyclone hit the part of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, which are not in the tropics, while generally such cyclones occur within the tropical zone. Climate scientists said such out-of-zone cyclones will become more frequent due to climate change.

On 3 March the BoM issued a tropical cyclone watch for the coast between Sandy Cape, Queensland and Grafton, New South Wales, which included Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Byron Bay but not Grafton. This was the first time a cyclone watch had been issued for Brisbane since a watch was briefly issued for Cyclone Oma during February 2019. During the next day, the watch was upgraded to a warning for the coastline between Double Island Point in Queensland and Yamba in New South Wales, which marked the first time a tropical cyclone warning had been issued for Brisbane since Cyclone Nancy in February 1990.^{[citation needed]}

In the lead up to the storm, three sandbagging stations were opened on the Gold Coast, with a further two opening soon after, due to high demand. Nine sandbagging stations were also opened in Noosa and a further five were opened on the Sunshine Coast. Large swell, and abnormally high tides are occurring along the central, and southern Queensland coast, with significant wave heights of up to 4.87 m recorded in the Wide Bay region, and significant erosion seen across the coast.