TC folks: I need hep

[PSUBlizzicane2007]

Hey guys-

I'm writing up an editorial discovery guide on an overview and the history of southern hemisphere tropical cyclones.

I've divided it into three sections: southwest Indian Ocean, Australia/Pacific, and Atlantic/SE Pacific (where I'll talk about Catarina and why storms don't form there).

For the SW Indian and Australian/Pacific regions, I'm generally limiting it to three cyclones per region. The problem is I only have two for the SW Indian and I have too many for the Australian/Pacific region.

So far for the SW Indian I've picked Gafilo for its strength and impact on Madagascar and Leon-Eline for its longevity and impact on Mozambique and inland Africa. I was trying to get a good cyclone that impacted Reunion significantly, but the closest thing I could dig up was Cyclone Dina... and even then not only is that a stretch, but there is not a lot of info out there on it.

For the Australian/Pacific regions, I'm picking between Tracy, Yasi, Zoe, Monica, Tomas, and Bebe. I think I can get away with doing four... but I want a wide selection. Tracy is good for obvious reasons, Yasi is good for QLD, Zoe was the strongest... so I feel like those three are necessary? Then I want one that impacted Fiji significantly... but I also need one with a lot of info.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Hep! Thanks!

[wxmx]

I think Gervaise in 1975 is a benchmark in Mauritius to which people there compare all other cyclones. I think they recorded 90kt 1min sustained winds and around 120kts wind gusts at 6m (anemometer was at 21m)...with higher elevations gusting up to 150kts or something like that...not sure how accurate are those readings, though there were probably topography enhancement driven in some cases.

http://www.bom.gov.a.../1975/padya.pdf

[Cypress]

wind speeds make headlines, but perhaps you might reference the rain, since flooding kills more people than winds

from: http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/about/extremes.shtml

Globally, the highest rainfall events seem to have occurred at La Reunion in the western Indian Ocean.

• 12 h: 1144 mm at Foc-Foc (2290 m altitude) in Tropical Cyclone Denise, 7-8 January 1966;
  
• 24 h - 1825 mm at Foc-Foc (2290 m altitude), La Reunion during Tropical Cyclone Denise, 7-8 January, 1966;
  
• 48 h - 2467 mm at Aurere (940 m altitude), La Reunion on 8-10 April, 1958;
  
• 72 h - 3240 mm Grand-Ilet (1150 m altitude), La Reunion during Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe 24-27 January, 1980.
  

[PSUBlizzicane2007]

Thanks to both of you! Both Gervaise and Denise give me good ideas... I'll have to research it some more.

[U_Thant]

You may want to mention the "Angola cyclone" of 1991, since as far as I know, it's the only one to be identified off the west coast of Africa south of the equator. I used to have the complete satellite dataset from EUMETSAT, but I sent it to NHC about 12-15 years ago.