MARCIA

History

Tropical Cyclone Marcia was a short-lived and weak system that developed over the open waters of the south-eastern Indian Ocean on 15 February 2000, well away from any landmass. It formed in the vicinity of 15°S, 103°E — roughly between the Cocos Islands and the north-western Australian coast — and was unusual in that it showed almost no forward motion, remaining essentially stationary throughout its brief life as a named cyclone.

Marcia reached its greatest strength as a Category 1 system on the Australian scale, with a minimum central pressure of 992 hPa estimated at 1000 UTC on 16 February. The system then began to weaken, and the Perth Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre issued its last advisory at 0400 UTC on 17 February, reclassifying Marcia as a tropical low. The remnant low persisted over open ocean before finally dissipating on 21 February.

Because Marcia stayed far offshore and never approached the coast, it produced no landfall, no damage and no casualties, making it one of the more inconsequential systems of a slightly above-average Australian region season that also produced the far more destructive cyclones John, Steve and Rosita.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia