Charlotte

History

Tropical Cyclone Charlotte was a short-lived but very wet system that affected the Gulf Country and Cape York Peninsula in January 2009, during the 2008–09 Australian region season. The season officially ran from 1 November 2008 to 30 April 2009 and produced near-average activity; it was also the first year in which the Bureau of Meteorology formally applied the separate concept of a "tropical cyclone year", running from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009.

The system was first identified as a tropical low in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria by the Darwin Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre on 8 January. Responsibility for advisories shifted the following day to the Brisbane warning centre, which placed coastal communities between Aurukun, on western Cape York Peninsula, and the Queensland–Northern Territory border under a cyclone watch. The low strengthened slowly over the warm, shallow waters of the Gulf and was named Charlotte on 11 January once it reached tropical cyclone intensity. It approached the Queensland coast from the north-west and crossed near the mouth of the Gilbert River at about 4:00 am AEST on 12 January, with wind gusts of around 120 km/h recorded as the centre moved onshore.

Charlotte's main legacy was rainfall rather than wind. Falls estimated at more than 150 mm caused widespread flooding across parts of the Gulf and Cape York region, inundating at least 100 houses in low-lying areas at Babinda, Mount Sophia and Normanton. The heavy rain also triggered mudslides, with residents describing mud through their properties, while floodwaters closed the main road into the fishing port of Karumba, temporarily isolating the town. Damage from the cyclone and its associated flooding was estimated at approximately US$15 million.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia