The 1969–70 Australian region cyclone season was an above-average

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

season. It ran from 1 November 1969 to 30 April 1970. The regional tropical cyclone operational plan also defines a "''tropical cyclone year''" separately from a "''tropical cyclone season''", with the "tropical cyclone year" for this season lasting from 1 July 1969 to 30 June 1970.

Season summary

ImageSize = width:800 height:230 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:20 left:20 Legend = columns:3 left:30 top:58 columnwidth:270 AlignBars = early DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/11/1969 till:01/06/1970 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMinor = grid:black unit:month increment:1 start:01/11/1969 Colors = id:canvas value:gray(0.88) id:GP value:red id:TD value:rgb(0.43,0.76,0.92) legend:Tropical_Low_=_<63_km/h_(<39_mph) id:C1 value:rgb(0.3,1,1) legend:Category_1_=_63–88_km/h_(39-55_mph) id:C2 value:rgb(0.75,1,0.75) legend:Category_2_=_89–117_km/h_(55-73_mph) id:C3 value:rgb(1,0.85,0.55) legend:Category_3_=_118–159_km/h_(73-99_mph) id:C4 value:rgb(1,0.45,0.54) legend:Category_4_=_160–199_km/h_(99-124_mph) id:C5 value:rgb(0.55,0.46,0.9) legend:Category_5_=_≥200_km/h_(≥124_mph) Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas BarData = barset:Hurricane bar:Month PlotData= barset:Hurricane width:10 align:left fontsize:S shift:(4,-4) anchor:till from:08/11/1969 till:09/11/1969 color:C1 text:"Blossom (C1)" from:14/11/1969 till:15/11/1969 color:TD text:"TL" from:02/01/1970 till:18/01/1970 color:C3 text:" Ada (C3)" from:03/01/1970 till:17/01/1970 color:C1 text:"Diane (C1) from:26/01/1970 till:06/02/1970 color:C3 text:"Glynis (C3)" from:02/02/1970 till:03/02/1970 color:C1 text:"Harriet (C1) from:09/02/1970 till:17/02/1970 color:C3 text:"Ingrid (C3)" from:09/02/1970 till:24/02/1970 color:C3 text:"Judy (C3)" barset:break from:10/02/1970 till:19/02/1970 color:C2 text:"Dawn (C2)" from:10/02/1970 till:12/02/1970 color:C1 text:"Florence (C2)" from:01/03/1970 till:04/03/1970 color:TD text:"TL" from:15/03/1970 till:20/03/1970 color:C1 text:"Cindy (C1)" from:19/03/1970 till:30/03/1970 color:C1 text:"Kathy (C1)" from:13/04/1970 till:18/04/1970 color:C1 text:"Isa (C1)" from:04/05/1970 till:09/05/1970 color:C1 text:"Lulu (C1)" bar:Month width:5 align:center fontsize:S shift:(0,-20) anchor:middle color:canvas from:01/11/1969 till:01/12/1969 text:November from:01/12/1969 till:01/01/1970 text:December from:01/01/1970 till:01/02/1970 text:January from:01/02/1970 till:01/03/1970 text:February from:01/03/1970 till:01/04/1970 text:March from:01/04/1970 till:01/05/1970 text:April from:01/05/1970 till:01/06/1970 text:May TextData = pos:(569,23) text:"(For further details, please see" pos:(713,23) text:"

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

Systems

Cyclone Blossom

A weak tropical cyclone, ''Blossom'' formed on November 8 to the northwest of

Cocos Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (; ), are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and rel ...

. It dissipated, the next day.

Cyclone Diane-Françoise

A tropical low formed on January 3. It soon developed to become Cyclone Diane, before crossing to the South-West Indian Ocean basin on January 9.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Ada

Tropical Cyclone Ada was a Category 3

cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...

that killed 14 people when it hit

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Whitsunday Island Whitsunday Island is the largest island in the Whitsunday Islands, Whitsunday group of islands located off the coast of Central Queensland, Australia. History Whitsunday Island was inhabited by the sea-faring Ngaro people for around 8,000 ye ...

Resorts and the adjacent Whitsunday Coast mainland on January 17, 1970. Resorts and boats were destroyed or severely damaged at Hayman, Daydream and South Molle Islands, as well as the two resorts – Happy Bay and Palm Bay – on Long Island. About 80% of buildings in the mainland centres of Shute Harbour,

Airlie Beach Airlie Beach is a coastal locality and resort town in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. In the , Airlie Beach had a population of 1,312 people. Geography Airlie Beach is one of many departure points for the Great Barrier Reef. ...

and Cannonvale were severely damaged. Some damage occurred also inland at Proserpine where, following 24-hours of heavy rain that accompanied the storm, the

Proserpine River The Proserpine River is a river in Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. The river is important to crocodile conservation as it provides habitat for Queensland's most dense population of the animal. The river is used by crocodile touri ...

peaked at 11.16 metres: its highest recorded flood. Fourteen people died and property damage was estimated at A$390 million (1997 values). Like Tropical Cyclone Tracy that devastated Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974, Ada was small in diameter (estimated width 30 km) and damage from her path was limited to a comparatively small geographical area. The wind from Tropical Cyclone Ada was not felt in Bowen (60 km to the north) or Mackay (120 km to the south). However, the heavy rains did cause flooding in the Pioneer River (Mackay) and the Don River (Bowen). Before degenerating into a rainstorm Cyclone Ada travelled further inland to the Cathu State Forest (83 km north-west of Mackay behind the small Bruce Highway township of Calen) and caused extensive damage to the eucalypts, rainforest and pine plantations in that area. It was as a result of complaints about the lack of timely warning about the 1970 cyclone that the Bureau of Meteorology introduced the cyclone warning siren that now accompanies all media broadcasts and telecasts of cyclone warnings in Queensland.

Cyclone Glynis

Cyclone Glynis formed on January 27 near the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. It moved to the southwest before crossing the coast, near

Mandurah, Western Australia Mandurah ( ) is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 90,306. Mandurah's central business dis ...

. It was last noted on February 6. There were no damages and fatalities reported.

Cyclone Harriet-Iseult

''Harriet'' formed in the western portion of the basin on February 2, strengthening to a tropical storm before moving on the South-West Indian Ocean basin on the next day, where it was renamed ''Iseult''.

Cyclone Ingrid

Cyclone Ingrid developed on February 9 near

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It crossed the coast near

Carnarvon, Western Australia Carnarvon ( ) is a coastal town situated approximately north of Perth, in Western Australia. It lies at the mouth of the Gascoyne River on the Indian Ocean. The Shark Bay World Heritage Site, world heritage area lies to the south of the town an ...

on an unknown date, causing severe agricultural damage. It was last noted on February 17, to the west-northwest of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Cyclone Judy

Cyclone Judy was first seen on February 9, developing in the central

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. Peaking as a Category 1- equivalent hurricane, it executed a small counterclockwise loop before it was last noted on February 24.

Cyclone Dawn

Cyclone Dawn formed on February 10 in the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

, before moving inland. It moved offshore towards the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

and continued its westward motion. Then it turned to the south until it was last noted on February 19. It affected the

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

with heavy rain.

Cyclone Florence

A weak cyclone, ''Florence'' developed on February 10 in the

. It was last noted, two days later.

Cyclone Cindy

Another tropical cyclone, ''Cindy'' formed on March 15 in the

. It was last seen on March 20.

Cyclone Kathy-Michelle

Cyclone Kathy formed on March 19 in the central

. It moved to the west-southwest before moving on the South-West Indian Ocean basin on March 25, where it was redesignated as Tropical Cyclone Michelle.

Cyclone Isa

Tropical Cyclone Isa formed on April 14 near the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. It impacted the island country before it was last noted as it moved out of the basin into the South Pacific basin on April 19.

Cyclone Lulu

Cyclone Lulu formed on May 4 to the west of

Port Hedland A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...

. It moved to the west before striking

, near Mundabullangana on May 8. It was last noted near

Whim Creek Whim may refer to: * Whim, U.S. Virgin Islands, a settlement * Whim (mining), a capstan or drum with a vertical axle used in mining * Whim (carriage), a type of carriage * ''Whim'', a reissue of ''Adventures of Wim'', a book by George Cockroft as ...

, the next day. It caused flooding around the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

region; however, it was unknown if there are reports of fatalities attributed to the cyclone.

Other systems

On November 14, a tropical low formed and lasted until the next day. Another tropical low developed on March 1 and was last noted on March 5.

Season effects

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1969-70 Australian region cyclone season Australian region cyclone seasons 1969 disasters in Australia 1970 disasters in Australia 1969 disasters in Oceania 1970 disasters in Oceania