Summary
A low formed well northwest of the Kimberley early in March and moved steadily westwards eventually reaching cyclone intensity at 06/18UTC. Cyclone advices were issued for Christmas Island on 7 March as Jacob moved to the northwest but were cancelled as Jacob recurved to the southeast on the 8th. Jacob reached category three intensity late on the 9th but weakened the following day under moderate northeasterly shear. Jacob continued its southeast then east southeast track eventually crossing the coast just east of Port Hedland as a tropical low on the morning of the 12th. Coincidentally this was almost the exact point at which category five George crossed only two days before.
Although Jacob weakened before impacting the coast, the threat of a second cyclone put communities on high alert and hampered recovery operations following TC George . In addition there was an economic impact due to loss of production from oil and gas facilities and closure of port operations. Arterial roads were closed through eastern and central inland parts of the Pilbara because of heavy rain exacerbated by rainfall associated with TC George just a few days earlier.
For more details see the TC Jacob Report (pdf)
Track and intensity
All times in WDT - subtract 9 hours to convert to UTC.
