DENNIS

History

Tropical Cyclone Dennis was a brief and weak system that spent its entire life over the open waters of the Coral Sea in February 1996. It began as a tropical low within an active monsoon trough in the north-western Coral Sea, first identified on 15 February roughly 350 km east of Cape Grenville, off Far North Queensland. Drifting generally east-south-eastward across warm water, the low organised quickly and was named Dennis by the Bureau of Meteorology's Brisbane Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre on 16 February.

Dennis peaked as a Category 1 system on the Australian scale, with an estimated minimum central pressure near 990 hPa, maximum sustained winds of about 75 km/h and gusts to around 100 km/h. This intensity was reached on 16 February while the cyclone continued east-south-east, moving further away from the Queensland coast and deeper into the Coral Sea.

Its favourable window was short-lived. Strong upper-level westerly wind shear began affecting the system late on 16 February, displacing the deep convection from the low-level circulation. Dennis fell below cyclone intensity on 17 February and the remnant low dissipated over open water on 18 February.

There was no landfall and no impact on the Australian mainland. Gale warnings were issued for Coral Sea shipping, but no damage, injuries or deaths were reported.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia