ERROL

History

Tropical Cyclone Errol developed from a tropical low that was first identified on 11 January 1982 over the Timor Sea, embedded within an active and slow-moving monsoonal trough off northwestern Australia. The same trough proved unusually productive, also generating Cyclones Bruno and Daphne–Fifi at around the same time. Drifting slowly on a west-southwesterly heading over warm waters, the low steadily became better organised and was upgraded to cyclone intensity at 00:00 UTC on 13 January, when the Perth Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre assigned it the name Errol.

Errol maintained a general southwest to west track over the open Indian Ocean for the following two days, intensifying only gradually. By 15 January a northwesterly monsoonal flow had begun to steer the system, and Errol recurved towards the southeast. It reached its peak intensity at 00:00 UTC that day as a Category 2 system on the Australian scale, with an estimated minimum central pressure of 980 hPa and maximum sustained winds near 100 km/h, with gusts to about 135 km/h.

As Errol swung southeast it drew progressively closer to Cyclone Bruno, which was active off the same stretch of coastline. The two systems entered a binary, Fujiwhara-type interaction, and Errol — the smaller of the pair — began to weaken from 16 January. Late on 18 January it was fully absorbed into Bruno's larger circulation and dissipated off the North West coast.

Errol never crossed the coast, remaining offshore of the Kimberley and Pilbara for its entire life. Gale warnings were issued for shipping along northwestern sea routes during the period of unusual double-cyclone activity, but offshore operations reported no structural damage, and there were no injuries or deaths. Some accounts associate flood damage in Western Australia with the system, although the severe flooding of that period is generally attributed to Bruno. Errol was one of several cyclones in an otherwise average 1981–82 Australian region season.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia