AIR Currents

Although tropical cyclone season in the Southern Hemisphere isn’t over until it’s over—it runs from November 1 to April 30—it’s been relatively quiet thus far, for the second year in a row. Although the Australia Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecasts for the season indicated an above-average number of tropical cyclones were likely for the basin, with less than one week left in the season, this looks unlikely with only 16 named storms, 6 of which were hurricane-strength and 3 were major hurricanes. The average is 26 named storms, 13 hurricane-strength, and 7 major hurricanes. The season’s most recent, and perhaps most memorable, storm was Debbie, which struck the Queensland coast as a Saffir-Simpson Category 3-equivalent storm on March 28. Bringing wind gusts as strong as 260 km/h (160 mph) and heavy rain, Debbie was the most powerful storm to strike Australia since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.