ERNIE

History

Tropical Cyclone Ernie was a short-lived and unusually late-season system that developed in the far northern Coral Sea in May 1989. Its precursor tropical low was first identified on 8 May along a residual monsoon trough lying across the Solomon Sea and the Louisiade Archipelago, off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. Drifting slowly towards the south-west over warm waters, the low gradually became better organised and was named Ernie by the Brisbane Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre on 9 May, having reached minimal Category 1 strength on the Australian scale.

At its peak, Ernie was a marginal system, with an estimated central pressure of around 998 hPa and maximum ten-minute mean winds near 65–75 km/h, with gusts to about 95 km/h. Its favourable window proved extremely brief. An upper-level trough moving across eastern Australia generated strong south-westerly vertical wind shear over the northern Coral Sea, and by 10 May the deep convection had been stripped entirely away from the low-level circulation. Ernie was downgraded to a tropical low less than a day after being named and dissipated over open water well to the east of Cape York Peninsula.

The cyclone stayed more than 600 km offshore and produced no effects on the Queensland coast. During its formative stage it brought squally showers and locally heavy rain to the outer islands of the Louisiade Archipelago, but caused no damage, injuries or deaths. Ernie was the final named system of the 1988–89 Australian region season.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia