Anniversary of Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Summary of Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi began developing as a tropical low northwest of Fiji on 29th January and started tracking on a general westward track. The system quickly intensified to a cyclone category to the north of Vanuatu and was named Yasi at 10pm on the 30th by Fiji Meteorological Service. Yasi maintained a westward track and rapidly intensified to a Category 2 by 10am on 31st January and then further to a Category 3 by 4pm on the same day.

Yasi maintained Category 3 intensity for the next 24 hours before being upgraded to a Category 4 at 7pm on 1st February. During this time, Yasi started to take a more west-southwestward movement and began to accelerate towards the tropical Queensland coast.

Yasi showed signs of further intensification and at 4am on 2nd February and was upgraded to a marginal Category 5 system. Yasi maintained this intensity and its west-southwest movement, making landfall on the southern tropical coast near Mission Beach between midnight and 1am early on Thursday 3rd February. Being such a strong and large system, Yasi maintained a strong core with damaging winds and heavy rain, tracking westwards across northern Queensland and finally weakened to a tropical low near Mount Isa around 10pm on 3rd February.

Yasi is one of the most powerful cyclones to have affected Queensland since records commenced. Previous cyclones of a comparable measured intensity include the 1899 cyclone Mahina in Princess Charlotte Bay, and the two cyclones of 1918 at Mackay (January) and Innisfail (March).

Coastal Crossing Details

Crossing time: 12 am - 1am EST, 3 Feb 2011
Crossing location: Near Mission Beach, 138km S of Cairns
Category when crossing the coast: 5

Extreme Values During Cyclone Event (estimated)

Note that these values may be changed on the receipt of later information

Maximum Category: 5
Maximum sustained wind speed: 205 km/hr (estimated)
Maximum wind gust: 285 km/hr (estimated)
Lowest central pressure: 929 hPa

Information sourced from The Bureau of Meteorology.