Joyce

History

Tropical Cyclone Joyce originated as a tropical low over the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf on 7 January 2018, before moving inland across the Kimberley region of Western Australia the following day. The system moved back offshore on 10 January and began to intensify, being upgraded to a tropical cyclone and named Joyce on 11 January. It subsequently made landfall along the Western Australian coast on 12 January.

As Joyce's remnants tracked southward, they brought significant rainfall to a wide area of Western Australia. Perth recorded 96 mm of rain within a 24-hour period on 15 January, while Rottnest Island received 142 mm over the same timeframe. Flood watches and warnings were issued across several river catchments, including the De Grey, Gascoyne, Greenough, Moore Hill, and Ord River systems, as well as the Sandy Desert and West Kimberley river districts. Minor flooding was recorded in the De Grey and Gascoyne River catchments. A separate slow-moving tropical low that followed brought additional heavy rainfall to the broader Kimberley region, with near-record accumulations of 639 mm over four days and 439 mm falling on Broome alone within a single 24-hour period, causing flood waters to reach depths of up to 1.5 metres in some locations and forcing closures of sections of the Great Northern Highway and Cape Leveque road.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia