MAY

History

Tropical Cyclone May was a short-lived, weak system that formed in the northern Coral Sea in late February 1998. It developed on 25 February from a small tropical low embedded in an active monsoon trough, approximately 350 km east-northeast of Cape York. Tracking generally northward over warm waters, the low consolidated quickly and was named May by the Bureau of Meteorology's Brisbane Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre that same day.

May reached its peak late on 25 February as it moved north toward the Louisiade Archipelago and south-eastern Papua New Guinea, attaining Category 1 intensity on the Australian scale with an estimated minimum central pressure near 992 hPa, 10-minute sustained winds of about 75 km/h and gusts to around 100 km/h. It held cyclone intensity for less than a day. Strong upper-level westerly shear and dry air then disrupted its small core, separating the convection from the surface centre, and May weakened to a tropical low on 26 February before its remnants dissipated over the Solomon Sea.

The system remained well away from the Queensland coast and caused no damage or flooding on the Australian mainland. Squally winds, heavy rain showers and rough seas affected the Louisiade Archipelago and surrounding Coral Sea waters, but no structural damage, injuries or deaths were reported. May was one of several systems during an active 1997–98 Australian region season.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia