ISOBEL

History

Tropical Cyclone Isobel was a short-lived system that spent its entire life over open water, never threatening land. It developed from a tropical low embedded in a well-defined monsoon trough over the eastern Indian Ocean on 27 January 1996, forming roughly 600 km south-southwest of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Warm sea surface temperatures and a favourable environment allowed the low to organise quickly, and the Bureau of Meteorology's Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Perth named it Isobel on 28 January.

Steered by a mid-level ridge positioned to its east, Isobel followed a fairly consistent south-southeastward path across the eastern Indian Ocean. It reached Category 2 strength on the Australian scale on 29 January, with a minimum central pressure near 980 hPa and maximum ten-minute sustained winds of about 100 km/h, accompanied by gusts to roughly 140 km/h. This peak was held for approximately 24 hours while the cyclone was situated well to the west-northwest of Western Australia.

Conditions deteriorated on 31 January as Isobel moved into an area of strong upper-level westerly shear and cooler waters, which stripped the deep convection away from the centre. The system fell below cyclone intensity late that day, and the remaining shallow low drifted south before dissipating on 1 February.

There was no landfall and no damage, injuries or deaths. Gale warnings were issued for shipping in the eastern Indian Ocean, but North West Shelf offshore facilities were unaffected, as Isobel stayed more than 1,000 km from the Western Australian coast.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia