DIRTY DOZEN
REVISIT THE CYCLONIC MONSTERS OF MARCH:
IF there’s one cliche that rings true for these tropically intensified storms it is that when it rains it pours.
Often, these weather monsters strike in the same place twice.
This was the case for the people of Queensland’s Airlie Beach, who were more or less directly hit by both Ului in 2010 and then Debbie in 2017.
On the other side of the continent the people of Exmouth in Western Australia weathered the strongest wind gust ever recorded on the mainland as TC Vance hit home in 1999.
And they were then pounded by Olwyn 15 years on.
As extreme weather event researcher Professor Jonathan Nott explained, there’s a reason Exmouth and the coast around it always get hit.
“It’s common for that part of the coast to get hit, in fact the whole Pilbara Coast gets hit because cyclones will often curve to the southeast and that coast sticks out to the west,” he said.
“Cyclones curve to the southeast a lot of the time so the cyclones will often curve away from the east coast.”
And while that veering pattern protects the east coast some of the time, it doesn’t always play out that way – as the stories below show.
1 TC VANCE March 16-23, 1999
Tropical Cyclone Vance caused the strongest gust of wind ever recorded on Australian soil.
Crossing the northwestern coast near Exmouth, Vance wreaked a trail of havoc right through inland Western Australia before finally weakening and exiting through the Great Australian Bight.
Shortly after Vance crossed the coast on March 22, a wind gust of 267km/h was recorded at the Learmouth Meteorological Office – the strongest ever recorded on the Australian mainland.
Remote towns had their water and power cut and rail and road links to the eastern states left Western Australia isolated.
In the small town of Onslow a wind gust measuring 174km/ h was recorded and a storm tide left mariners stranded on their barges at a nearby creek.
2 TC FAY March, 16-28, 2004
It had been five years since a major cyclone crossed the Australian coastline during the month of March when Fay formed in the Timor Sea.
Her track as a tropical low had been impressive – raging all the way from the tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria, threatening the Northern Territory, before finally making the grade as a cyclone and turning on the Western Australian coast.
However WA got lucky with Fay – she made landfall in a remote part of the eastern Pilbara and the hardest hit were 200 workers in a remote mine site.
They weathered through OK by going into lockdown for eight hours.
3 TC INGRID March 11-16, 2005
She’s been compared to Tracy, the archetypal Australian cyclone: small but very intense at the core. TC Ingrid is the only cyclone to impact three Australian states.
She developed in the Gulf of Carpentaria, hitting remote towns on the Cape, before moving west and hitting the Territory.
Finally she made landfall on the western Kimberley in WA.
While Fay had sunk several small ships along her path, the worst of the damage was unleashed at her final destination – the remote resort of Faraway Bay – where buildings were destroyed and vegetation stripped.
4 TC GLENDA March 15-31, 2006
It had been seven years since the town of Onslow was hit by Cyclone Vance when Glenda formed off the northwest coastline.
And as she made her way south – rapidly intensifying to a Category 5 – residents in the remote town began to prepare.
Ultimately Glenda weakened as she crossed the coastline and while she brought substantial rainfall – 206mm at Onslow, where she finally made landfall – the damage was largely averted.
5 TC LARRY March 17-20, 2006
Forming in the Coral Sea and crossing the Queensland coastline as a Category 3, Larry devastated the area around Innisfail.
Homes and crops bore the brunt of the damage, which once tallied amounted to $500 million.
Roads and rail lines were cut for days afterwards as Larry stayed at hurricane strength as he moved over the Atherton tablelands.
All in 10,000 homes were damaged by the cyclone
6 TC GEORGE Feb 27-March 12 2007
He crossed the Northern Territory’s coastline as a humble low-pressure system before tearing out to sea and intensifying off Broome.
By the time TC George hit the coast near Port Hedland on March 7, he was an angry Category 5.
A 10-minute mean wind of 194km/h was recorded at Bedout Island and at Port Hedland gusts reached 154km/h.
Three lives were claimed by TC George – along with numerous injuries.
And as George was making landfall Jacob was forming out near Christmas Island.
7 TC ULUI March 12-21, 2010
In the depth of the night – at 1.30am on March 21 – Ului crossed the Queensland coastline near Airlie Beach.
Cane crops were flattened, about 50,000 homes lost power and many boats were damaged during the large swells she unleashed on her way over from Vanuatu, where she formed.
There was structural damage to roofs all the way down to Mackay but thankfully Ului fizzled not too long after making landfall.
8 TC PAUL March 24- April 3, 2010
As the devastation from Ului was being assessed another cyclone formed in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
At his peak Paul dumped 443mm of rain on Bulman in 24 hours.
A chopper crashed during strong winds at the remote Flying Fox Station and some remote communities suffered food shortages as a result of isolation due to flooding.
9 TC LUA March 9-18, 2012
It had been a horror season in the Pilbara when Lua looped around in the ocean off Port Hedland before intensifying and hitting the coast to the east of Pardoo.
Lua was the fifth cyclone in the western parts of Australia in the summer of 2011-12 and the second to cross the Pilbara coast.
A roadhouse on the edge of Pardoo recorded significant damage, while the De Grey river system suffered major flooding.
10 TC OLWYN March 8-14, 2015
The exceptional thing about Olwyn was just how far south he travelled.
Before he hit Carnarvon, the last cyclone to impact the Western Australian town was in 1960 – before they were named.
And it had been more than 15 years since Vance hit Exmouth in the northern part of the state.
Olwyn cut power lines, damaged crops and disrupted water supplies as mains burst.
Offshore drilling operations were also halted.
11 TC NATHAN March 10-24, 2015
Mere months after Marcia devastated Queensland, Nathan formed just south of Papua New Guinea’s southeastern tip.
He moved across the Coral Sea – making landfall as a Category 4 beast to the north of Cooktown.
Luckily landfall occurred in an unpopulated area, which kept the impact relatively low.
And over the next few days Nathan was steered back out to sea before crossing the Gulf and hitting the Northern Territory.
In the town of Nhulunbuy boats broke their moorings as wind gusts close to 100km/h were recorded.
12 TC DEBBIE March 28 - 29 2017
Cyclone Debbie made landfall between the towns of Bowen and Airlie Beach at the Whitsundays around noon on March 28. The region was smashed by Category 4 winds and pelting rain and the rural town of Proserpine copped the full brunt of Debbie’s force. Businesses and homes were destroyed, with roofs ripped off buildings. A German tourist was killed in a head-on collision on March 27 amid poor weather. Cyclone Debbie was downgraded to a Category 2 as it made its way south. It was again downgraded to a tropical low about 3am on March 29.