Summary
A low moved from the Northern Territory across the north Kimberley then developed after moving off the northwest Kimberley coast on the morning of 1 March reaching cyclone intensity that evening about 80 km north of Cape Leveque. The midget cyclone Ophelia quickly developed to category 2 intensity on the morning of 2 March Ophelia and remained a category 2 cyclone through to 5 March as it moved to the west to west southwest well off the Pilbara coast. Ophelia then weakened as it changed track to the south southwest and finally weakening below cyclone intensity late on 6 March well west of Carnarvon.
Although advices were issued for the Kimberley coast north of Broome prior to Ophelia moving away from the coast, there were no community alerts issued and no impact to coastal areas. Some offshore industry installations were evacuated as a precautionary measure resulting in some economic losses, however the confidence in the forecast track allowed coastal and near coastal facilities to continue operations during the cyclone event.
For more details see the TC Ophelia Report (pdf)
Track and intensity
All times in WDT - subtract 9 hours to convert to UTC.
