Summary
Severe Tropical Cyclone Freddy developed south of Indonesia and crossed the entire width of the Southern Indian Ocean. Whilst there were no known impacts within the Australian region, there were devastating impacts to Madagascar and parts of southern Africa, particularly Mozambique and Malawi.
The low formed south of the Indonesian Archipelago on 5 February and developed into a tropical cyclone at 1200 UTC 6 February. After a brief period of southerly motion, Freddy turned west and moved over open waters to the north of Western Australia and to the south of both Christmas and the Cocos Islands. Freddy went through periods of intensification and weakening as it moved west. The tropical cyclone initially intensified rapidly and reached a 10-minute mean wind peak intensity of 80 kn (150 km/h) at 0000 UTC 8 February. Freddy then weakened before re-intensifying to a second peak intensity of 95 kn (175 km/h) at 1800 UTC 11 February and 0600 UTC 12 February. It continued moving westward out of the Australian region and into La Reunion's area of responsibility on 14 February.
For more information see the TC Freddy Report (pdf).
Track and Intensity
