Summary
Severe Tropical Cyclone Vince (15U) was a long-lived event that tracked west-southwest across the Indian Ocean.
Tropical low 15U formed in the eastern Indian Ocean, northwest of the Western Australian coast and south of Christmas Island on 31 January. It gradually developed over following days as it steadily tracked over open waters to the west-southwest. Gales developed south of the centre late on 1 February and then extended around the remainder of centre at 1200 UTC 2 February (2000 WST 2 February, WST=UTC+8 hours). The system was named Tropical Cyclone Vince at 0000 UTC 3 February. Vince continued on its west-southwest track reaching category 3 intensity later on 3 February. Vince then crossed 90°E moving beyond the Australian region of responsibility. Vince continued to intensify over following days to become a very intense tropical cyclone on 7-8 February before turning to the south-southeast and gradually weakening over the central Indian Ocean.
Vince did not impact the Australian mainland or island communities.
For more information see the TC Vince Report (docx).
Track and Intensity
