INES

History

Severe Tropical Cyclone Ines developed near the coast of the Northern Territory's Top End on 17 November 1973, forming just off the Arnhem Land coast as a tropical low. The system tracked westward, passing north of the Bathurst and Melville (Tiwi) Islands before entering the Bonaparte Gulf and curving sharply to the southwest toward the Kimberley coast. As it approached, Ines intensified rapidly, reaching peak intensity as a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone with a minimum central pressure of 970 hPa and maximum sustained winds of 150 km/h, featuring a well-defined eye visible in satellite imagery.

The cyclone passed extremely close to Troughton Island, where the weather station recorded mean winds of 102 km/h and gusts to 130 km/h before instruments failed. All installations on the island, including naval navigational aids, were destroyed. Gale-force winds and heavy rain also affected the Arnhem Land coast and the Darwin-Daly region for more than 48 hours prior to the storm's intensification. Ines made landfall on the northern Kimberley coast of Western Australia on 21 November 1973, marking the earliest calendar-year mainland landfall recorded in the Australian satellite era. The storm weakened rapidly over the dry inland terrain and dissipated as a tropical low by 24 November 1973.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia