TINA

History

Tropical Cyclone Tina was a brief, weak system that affected the northwest coast of Western Australia in late January 1990. Its precursor tropical low developed within an active monsoon trough over the Kimberley on 25 January. Drifting southwest, the low moved off the West Kimberley coast and into the eastern Indian Ocean, where warm coastal waters allowed it to organise. On 26 January the Bureau of Meteorology's Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Perth classified the system as a Category 1 tropical cyclone and named it Tina.

Steered by a mid-level ridge positioned over inland Australia, Tina tracked roughly parallel to the Pilbara coastline. It attained peak strength late on 26 January, with a central pressure of about 988 hPa, maximum ten-minute sustained winds near 75 km/h (40 knots) and gusts to around 100 km/h. The cyclone remained small and compact throughout its life.

Strengthening upper-level wind shear, combined with proximity to land, quickly eroded the system. Tina fell below tropical cyclone intensity before it reached the coast, coming ashore as a weakening tropical low on 27 January in the vicinity of Broome and Eighty Mile Beach. It moved inland and dissipated over Western Australia on 28 January.

The main consequence of Tina was rainfall rather than wind. Moderate to heavy monsoonal falls spread across the western Kimberley and eastern Pilbara, producing minor stream rises and some disruption to roads. High-seas warnings were issued for shipping lanes off the Kimberley and Pilbara coasts as a precaution, but North West Shelf oil and gas installations reported no operational disruption or structural damage. No deaths, injuries or significant property damage were attributed to the cyclone.

Tina was one of a busy sequence of systems affecting Western Australian waters that summer, following soon after the considerably stronger Severe Tropical Cyclone Sam earlier in January.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia