The 2000–01 Australian region cyclone season was a below 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 began on 1 November 2000 and ended on 30 April 2001. The regional tropical cyclone operational plan also defines a ''tropical cyclone year'' separately from a ''tropical cyclone season'', which runs from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2001. Tropical cyclones in this area are monitored by four Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs): the

Australian Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government that is responsible for providing weather forecasts and meteorological services to Australia and neighbouring countries. It was established in 1906 unde ...

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 ...

, Darwin, and

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

; and TCWC

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

.
/ref> __TOC__

Season timeline

ImageSize = width:850 height:220 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:01/11/2000 till:01/05/2001 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMinor = grid:black unit:month increment:1 start:01/12/2000 Colors = id:canvas value:gray(0.88) id:GP value:red id:TL 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:11 align:left fontsize:S shift:(4,-4) anchor:till from:28/11/2000 till:30/11/2000 color:TL text:"TL" from:03/12/2000 till:10/12/2000 color:C5 text:" Sam (C5)" from:04/12/2000 till:06/12/2000 color:TL text:"TL" from:07/01/2001 till:10/01/2001 color:TL text:"TL from:27/01/2001 till:31/01/2001 color:C2 text:"Terri (C2)" from:07/02/2001 till:15/02/2001 color:C1 text:"Vincent (C1)" from:08/02/2001 till:14/02/2001 color:C1 text:"Winsome (C1)" barset:break from:14/02/2001 till:22/02/2001 color:C1 text:"Wylva (C1)" from:16/02/2001 till:16/02/2001 color:TL text:"10P (TL)" from:24/02/2001 till:08/03/2001 color:C3 text:"Abigail (C3)" from:16/03/2001 till:17/03/2001 color:TL text:"TL" from:01/04/2001 till:08/04/2001 color:C3 text:"Walter (C3)" from:04/04/2001 till:05/04/2001 color:TL text:"TL" from:15/04/2001 till:23/04/2001 color:C2 text:"Alistair (C2)" bar:Month width:6 align:center fontsize:S shift:(0,-20) anchor:middle color:canvas from:01/11/2000 till:01/12/2000 text:November from:01/12/2000 till:01/01/2001 text:December from:01/01/2001 till:01/02/2001 text:January from:01/02/2001 till:01/03/2001 text:February from:01/03/2001 till:01/04/2001 text:March from:01/04/2001 till:01/05/2001 text:April 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

Severe Tropical Cyclone Sam

Sam originated from a

tropical low 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 ...

that formed in the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea is ...

on 28 November. Tracking generally westward, the initial

low-pressure area In meteorology, a low-pressure area (LPA), low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. It is the opposite of a high-pressure area. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with incle ...

remained generally weak until it entered the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea (, , or ) is a relatively shallow sea in the Indian Ocean bounded to the north by the island of Timor with Timor-Leste to the north, Indonesia to the northwest, Arafura Sea to the east, and to the south by Australia. The Sunda Tr ...

, by which time it had strengthened into a tropical cyclone on 5 December. Though a

subtropical ridge The horse latitudes are the latitudes about 30 degrees north and south of the Equator. They are characterized by sunny skies, calm winds, and very little precipitation. They are also known as subtropical ridges or highs. It is a high-pressur ...

was forcing the cyclone westward at the time, an approaching

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

trough Trough may refer to: In science * Trough (geology), a long depression less steep than a trench * Trough (meteorology), an elongated region of low atmospheric pressure * Trough (physics), the lowest point on a wave * Trough level (medicine), the l ...

caused Sam to track southward the following day, towards the Australian coast. During its southward progression, Sam

rapidly intensified Rapid intensification (RI) is any process wherein a tropical cyclone strengthens very dramatically in a short period of time. Tropical cyclone forecasting agencies utilize differing thresholds for designating rapid intensification events, th ...

, and reached its peak intensity on 7 December. The next day, the storm made

landfall Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...

near Lagrange, Western Australia at the same intensity. Once inland, Sam was slow to weaken as it recurved eastward, and persisted for nearly a week inland before dissipating on 14 December. Throughout its existence, Cyclone Sam brought heavy rainfall to a wide swath of northern Australia. Rainfall peaked at in Shelamar over a 48-hour period ending on 11 December. Upon making landfall, damage was considerable, albeit localized. Most of the destruction wrought by Sam occurred near the coast, particularly in Bidyadanga and Anna Springs Station. Some buildings sustained considerable damage, and trees and power lines were felled, resulting in some

power outage A power outage, also called a blackout, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, a power cut, or a power out is the complete loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an el ...

s. Offshore, 163

illegal immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

aboard two vessels were feared to have drowned, which would make Sam one of the deadliest cyclones in Australian history. However, these people were later accounted for.

Tropical Cyclone Terri

Terri formed on 27 January 2001 near the northern

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

coast. The storm paralleled the coast, reaching Category 2 strength before making landfall near Pardoo early on 31 January. The storm dissipated Late on the same day.

Tropical Cyclone Vincent

Cyclone Vincent formed on 7 February 2001, 900 km northwest of

Onslow, Western Australia Onslow is a coastal town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, north of Perth. It had a population of 829 people as at 2021 and is located within the Shire of Ashburton local government area. The town is served by Onslow Airport, and i ...

from an active monsoonal trough.

Wind shear Wind shear (; also written windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical ...

prevented the tropical low from intensifying for a few days, but once the storm formed it began to move southeast and intensify. Vincent peaked with sustained winds of which made it a Category 2 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale. Cyclone Vincent crossed the

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 ...

coast as a tropical low, a few kilometres south of

Broome, Western Australia Broome, also known as Rubibi by the Yawuru, Yawuru people, is a coastal Pearl hunting, pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The town recorded a population of 14,6 ...

Tropical Cyclone Winsome

Winsome was a weak system that developed from a low in the Gulf of Carpentaria on 8 February. Torrential rains produced by the storm in the Northern Territory resulted in severe flooding which killed two people.

Tropical Cyclone Wylva

Wylva formed from a low 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 ...

on 15 February. Wylva briefly became a Category 1 tropical cyclone before making landfall near Booroloola in the morning of 16 February. Even though the system made landfall in a remote area, the remnants of the system caused $13 million in damage and around 700 people had to be evacuated. The remnants of Wylva dissipated on 22 February near Nanutarra.

Tropical Low 10P (07F)

This storm moved from Brisbane's area of responsibility into Fiji's on 16 February. It dissipated on 18 February.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Abigail

On 24 February 2001, Cyclone Abigail formed about 80 km northeast of

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

, Australia. It then made landfall in Queensland as a Category 1 storm.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Walter

Walter was a storm that formed east of Christmas Island and tracked westward at a low latitude. On 3 April,

Cocos Island Cocos Island () is a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica, approximately southwest of the Costa Rican mainland. It constitutes the 11th of the 15 districts of Puntarenas Canton of the Puntarenas Province, Province of ...

was placed under a cyclone watch as Walter approached the island. Throughout 5 April, heavy rains and high winds, estimated up to battered the area as Walter passed by the island.

Tropical Cyclone Alistair

The second most damaging cyclone of the 2000–01 cyclone season, Alistair made landfall close to Carnarvon on 24 April 2001 as a poorly organized cyclone. The centre passed just to the north of town with a wind gust to 67 kilometres per hour from the northeast recorded at 4:11 am. Minimum pressure of 1002.9 hPa was recorded at 5 am, followed by the peak recorded wind gust of 90 kilometres per hour from the southeast at 6 am. A total of 24 mm of rainfall was reported in Carnarvon. Plantations to the north of Carnarvon reported 30-40% crop losses, with wind estimates of 100 to 110 kilometres per hour.

Other systems

On 28 November, a tropical low formed near

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an States and territories of Australia#External territories, Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean comprising the island of the same name. It is about south o ...

. Moving southeastward, the low was last noted to the south-southwest of

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

on 30 November. On 4 December, the TCWC Brisbane reported that a tropical low formed near the tip of the

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

. Moving southwestward, the primary responsibility of the tropical low was passed to the TCWC Darwin from TCWC Brisbane as the low made landfall near

Alyangula Alyangula is the largest township on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory, Australia. History Groote Eylandt Mining Company ( GEMCO) established Alyangula as the residence for the mining company workers in the late 1960s. The township was ...

. It was last noted on 6 December. On 7 January, the TCWC Darwin reported that a tropical low developed to the north-northwest of

Tiwi Islands The Tiwi Islands ( meaning "two islands") are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, to the north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island, Bathurst I ...

. The low slowly moved to the south-southwest, before it was last noted while inland, near

Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

. Another tropical low formed on 16 March near

. Wind shear prevented further intensification, and it dissipated the next day. On 4 April, a weak tropical low formed to the north of

Nhulunbuy Nhulunbuy () is a town and locality in the far north of the Northern Territory of Australia. Founded on the Gove Peninsula in north-east Arnhem Land when a bauxite mine and deep water port were established in the late 1960s, the town's econ ...

. It was last seen the next day.

Storm names

TCWC Perth * Sam * Terri * Vincent * Walter TCWC Darwin * Winsome * Alistair TCWC Brisbane * Wylva * Abigail The Bureau of Meteorology would later retire the names ''Sam'' and ''Abigail'', replacing them with ''Sean'' and ''Anika'' respectively. Anika was first used in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

with Sean following later in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Season effects

This is a table of all of the storms that have formed in the 2000–01 Australian region cyclone season. It includes their duration, names, landfall(s)–denoted by bold location names – damages, and death totals. Damage and deaths include totals while the storm was extratropical, a wave, or a low, and all of the damage figures are in 2001 AUD and USD. , - , Sam , , , , bgcolor=#, Category 5 severe tropical cyclone , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , ,

, , Minor , , None , , , - , Terri , , , , bgcolor=#, Category 2 tropical cyclone , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , , Western Australia , , , , , , , - , Vincent , , , , bgcolor=#, Category 2 tropical cyclone , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , , Western Australia , , , , , , , - , Winsome , , , , bgcolor=#, Category 1 tropical cyclone , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , , Northern Territory , , , , , , , - , Wylva , , , , bgcolor=#, Category 1 tropical cyclone , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , , Northern Australia , , , , , , , - , 10P , , , , bgcolor=#, Tropical Low , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , , None , , None , , None , , , - , Abigail , , , , bgcolor=#, Category 3 severe tropical cyclone , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , ,

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 ...

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 ...

, , None , , None , , , - , Walter , , , , bgcolor=#, Category 3 severe tropical cyclone , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , ,

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 ...

, , None , , None , , , - , Alistair , , , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , , bgcolor=#, , , Northern Territory, Western Australia , , , , , , , -