Cyclone Katrina-Victor-Cindy

Severe Tropical Cyclone Katrina

Category 4 severe tropical cyclone (Aus scale)
Category 2 (Saffir–Simpson scale)
Satellite image of Katrina on January 13, 1998
Formed	1 January 1998
Dissipated	25 January 1998
Highest winds	10-minute sustained: 165 km/h (105 mph) 1-minute sustained: 165 km/h (105 mph)
Lowest pressure	940 hPa (mbar); 27.76 inHg
Fatalities	2 total
Damage	$8.66 million (1998 USD)
Areas affected	Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Northern Australia
Part of the 1997–98 Australian region cyclone season and 1997–98 South Pacific cyclone season

Severe Tropical Cyclone Katrina was a long-lived and erratic tropical cyclone, which moved around Australia during parts of January and February 1998. The initial system developed on 2 January and meandered within the Coral Sea between the Queensland coast and Vanuatu for the next three weeks. After its decay the remnants of Katrina moved westward over Cape York Peninsula, past the Northern Territory and into the Indian Ocean.

On 1 January, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) started to monitor a tropical low, that had developed within the monsoon trough about 630 km (390 mi) to the east-northeast of Cairns in Queensland, Australia. During that day the system moved south-eastwards, before it entered an area of weak steering flow, which made the system perform a small cyclonic loop over the next two days. Early on 3 January the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center initiated advisories on the system and designated it as Tropical Cyclone 12P. This was after the system had rapidly intensified and a wind report of 57 km/h (35 mph) had been received from Lihou Reef. At around the same time the BoM named the system Katrina, as it had become a Category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale. After the system was named an increase in the deep westerly flow to the north of the system, caused Katrina to start moving north-eastwards towards the South Pacific basin. Over the next few days the system slowly intensified further as the systems inflow, was dominated by Cyclone Susan which was rapidly intensifying to the west of Vanuatu. Susan's outflow also caused a moderate amount of vertical wind shear over Katrina, which helped to inhibit development of the system and weakened it slightly.

Katrina crossed 160°E and moved into the South Pacific basin during 7 January where it was monitored by the Fiji Meteorological Service, as it passed about 90 km (55 mi) to the south of Rennell Island in the Solomon Islands. The system subsequently started move south-eastwards towards the island nation of Vanuatu, as started to intensify quicker as Susan moved south-eastwards towards Fiji. The system subsequently came to within 220 km (135 mi) of Vanuatu's northernmost island Espiritu Santo, before it recurved westwards during 9 January, because of a weakening of the monsoonal westerlies and the development of an anticyclone to the south of the system. Later that day the FMS reported that the system had peaked as a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone, on the Australian scale with 10-minute sustained wind speeds of 150 km/h (90 mph). The JTWC also reported during 9 January that the system had peaked with 1-minute sustained wind speeds of 165 km/h (105 mph), which made the system equivalent to a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.