Tropical Cyclone Ingrid

Post Landfall 1 | Summary
Posting Date: March 18, 2005, 11:00:00 AM

On Wednesday, March 16, Tropical Cyclone Ingrid made its third and final landfall along a sparsely populated region of the Australian coast as a Category 2 storm. After leaving the Tiwi Islands on Monday, Ingrid strengthened as it crossed the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, but weakened again before coming onshore near the Faraway Bay resort. With wind speeds near104 mph at landfall, Ingrid caused extensive damage to the remote resort but there were no reports of significant damage to the nearby community of Kalumburu, which had been evacuated in preparation for the storm’s arrival. Tropical Cyclone Ingrid began its life on March 6 off the northeast coast of Australia. Its first landfall occurred on March 9 along the eastern coast of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The storm had weakened just before coming ashore and continued to weaken as it crossed the sparsely populated peninsula. Strengthening again as it crossed the Gulf of Carpenteria, Ingrid brushed just north of the town of Nhulunbuy on March 11 with winds of 138 mph, causing significant damage to a large natural pearl farm and several pearling vessels, at least one of which was lost. Over the next 24 hours the storm tracked just off the coast, reaching its maximum strength with winds of 155 mph, but weakened once again before reaching Croker Island. Sustained winds of 138 mph brought down trees and power lines on the island and caused extensive roof damage. Similar kinds of damage were reported in the Tiwi Islands of Melville and Bathurst. Using the available meteorological information on this storm, the AIR tropical cyclone modeling team has run the Australia tropical cyclone model. While Ingrid was long-lived and extremely powerful at various points in the course of its life, it affected generally sparsely populated areas of the coast. AIR model results indicate that insured losses from Ingrid should not exceed $150 million AUD.

Post Landfall 1 | Downloads
Posting Date: March 18, 2005, 11:00:00 AM