Sean

History

Tropical Cyclone Sean developed during the 2009–10 Australian region cyclone season, a season that produced eight tropical cyclones across the basin — below the long-term average of about twelve. The season officially ran from 1 November 2009 to 30 April 2010, covering the area south of the equator between 90°E and 160°E, with warning responsibility shared between the Bureau of Meteorology centres at Perth, Darwin and Brisbane, along with Jakarta and Port Moresby. The Bureau assigns significant tropical lows a number followed by a "U" suffix, while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issues supplementary unofficial advisories using "S" and "P" designations depending on whether a system forms west or east of 135°E.

Ahead of the season, the Bureau's National Climate Centre issued forecasts for the whole basin for the first time, anticipating seven to thirteen cyclones region-wide, with five to eight expected in the western sub-region between 90°E and 125°E, three to four in the northern sub-region, and three to four in the eastern sub-region. The Guy Carpenter Asia-Pacific Climate Impact Centre at the City University of Hong Kong separately predicted eight cyclones for the region, five of them in the western half.

The season's most damaging systems were Tropical Cyclones Olga and Paul, whose heavy rainfall caused extensive flooding across northern Australia, with combined losses estimated at A$508 million (about US$500 million). Other notable systems included Severe Tropical Cyclone Laurence, which reached Category 5 intensity twice and crossed the Kimberley and Pilbara coasts in December 2009 with gusts near 285 km/h, and Severe Tropical Cyclone Magda, which made landfall near Kuri Bay, Western Australia, on 21 January 2010 as a Category 3 system.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia