FELICITY

History

Tropical Cyclone Felicity began as a monsoonal low that the Bureau of Meteorology began tracking on 13 December 1989 in the Arafura Sea, northeast of Darwin. The disturbance tracked southeast across the Northern Territory over the following day before curving slightly and moving out over the Gulf of Carpentaria, where conditions allowed it to organise further.

Early on 15 December, TCWC Brisbane classified the system as a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian scale and named it Felicity. The Joint Typhoon Warning Centre also began issuing advisories that day, designating it Tropical Cyclone 07P. Felicity reached its peak with 10-minute sustained winds of about 110 km/h before crossing the coast of Cape York Peninsula, weakening below cyclone strength as it moved inland.

The remnant low emerged into the Coral Sea on 16 December and deepened rapidly, though it never regained the structure of a true tropical cyclone. Despite winds of 110–115 km/h being observed in its southwestern quadrant, both TCWC Brisbane and TCWC Nadi continued to treat the system as a tropical depression for the next four days. Felicity was finally absorbed by a short-wave trough north of New Zealand on 20 December.

Impacts were slight, limited to minor damage to vegetation on Cape York Peninsula, making Felicity one of the less destructive systems of an above-average 1989–90 Australian region season.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia