Tropical Cyclone Weekly Summary #186 (February 19 - 26, 1995)

[Jack Beven]

This report is compiled from warnings issued by:
National Hurricane Center Central Pacific Hurricane Center
Naval Western Oceanography Center Fiji Meteorological Service
Meteorological Service of New Zealand Joint Typhoon Warning Center
Japanese Meteorological Agency Bureau of Meteorology, Australia
Philippine Meteorological Service Royal Observatory of Hong Kong
Indian Meteorological Department Reunion Meteorological Service
Mauritius Meteorological Service
(others may be added as they become available)

Special Announcement: Text copies of past weekly summaries can now be
retrieved via ftp from squall.met.fsu.edu. They can be found in the directory
pub/jack.

Author's note: Special thanks to Chris Landsea, Laurie Williams, Blair
Trewin, and Gary Weymouth for passing along information on Tropical Cyclone
Bobby.

WEEKLY TROPICAL CYCLONE SUMMARY #186 FEBRUARY 19 - 26, 1995

North Atlantic Basin: No tropical cyclones.

Eastern North Pacific Basin (E of 140 Deg. W): No tropical cyclones.

Central North Pacific Basin (180 Deg. W to 140 Deg. W): No tropical cyclones.

Western North Pacific Basin (W of 180 Deg. W): No tropical cyclones.

North Indian Ocean Basin: No tropical cyclones.

South Indian Ocean Basin (W of 135 Deg. E):

Tropical Cyclone Bobby (TC-12S): Tropical Cyclone-12S formed near 15S 120E
on 21 February. Moving southwest parallel to the Australian coast, the system
was named Bobby the next day. Bobby turned south-southwest on 23 February as
it reached hurricane strength, and this track continued on 24 February as the
cyclone made landfall over northwest Australia just east of Onslow. Maximum
sustained winds reached 105-110 kt at landfall. Bobby turned south-southeast
on 25 February as it weakened to a tropical storm over land, and the system
weakened to a low pressure system over western Australia the next day.

Bobby's track along the Australian west coast resulted in a large area
being hit with tropical-storm force or greater winds. Onslow reported a peak
gust of 99 kt and a minimum pressure of 950 mb (exact times unknown). Onslow's
maximum reported sustained winds were 80 kt with a 959.3 mb pressure at 1900
UTC 24 February. Nyang reported 60 kt sustained winds and a pressure of 975.6
mb at 0700 UTC 25 February. Roeburn reported 60 kt winds at 0400 UTC 24 Feb-
ruary, while the Thevenard Island automated station reported a 973.3 mb pres-
sure at 1600 UTC 24 February. In addition, Onslow reported 16.73 in (425 mm)
of rain, which is greater than their average annual rainfall of 10.51 in
(267 mm).

There are conflicting reports as to the number of casualties. Current press
reports indicate that 4 people may have been killed with as many as 10 others
missing. All the casualty reports are from offshore fishing boats. Damage on
land is currently reported as light.

Tropical Cyclone Ingrid (TC-13S): Tropical Cyclone Ingrid formed near 17S
61E on 24 February. Initially drifting west, the storm turned south-southwest
on 25 February. Ingrid turned south of 26 February as it reached hurricane
strength, and at the end of the summary period it was east of Mauritius mov-
ing south with 75 kt winds.

Ingrid had a large circulation that affected several of the south Indian
Ocean islands. Plaisance, Mauritius reported 32 kt sustained winds with gusts
to 49 kt at 0300 UTC 26 February, with a minimum pressure of 990.4 mb at 1200
UTC the same day. St. Brandon Island reported 30 kt sustained winds and a
991.6 mb pressure at 0000 UTC 25 February. Ship 3BIH reported 37 kt winds at
0600 UTC 24 February, with a minimum pressure of 999.6 mb 6 hr earlier. There
are no reports of damage or casualties at this time.

South Pacific Ocean Basin (E of 135 Deg. E): No tropical cyclones.

Disclaimer: While an effort has been made to insure that this information is
as accurate as possible, it was drawn from operational warnings that may not
always agree with the best track information published after the storm is
over. Please address any questions or comments on the information this week
to Jack Beven at Internet addresses:

be...@hrd-tardis.nhc.noaa.gov or jbe...@delphi.com

Past text copies of the Tropical Cyclone Weekly Summary can be obtained via e-
mail or by ftp (see announcement above). Please send an e-mail message to Jack
Beven if you are interested.

A digitized version of the weekly summary with DMSP polar orbiting imagery
is available over the World Wide Web. This is courtesy of Greg Deuel at the
DMSP satellite archive. It can be found at: http://web.ngdc.noaa.gov/ under
the Weekly Updated Items section of the DMSP Satellite Archive home page.

For more information on the imagery and how to retrieve the digitized
summary and images by other methods, please contact Greg Deuel at Internet
address:

g...@po-box.ngdc.noaa.gov.