Luana

History

Tropical Cyclone Luana formed during the 2025–26 Australian region cyclone season, a particularly active period characterised by record warm sea surface temperatures and a strongly negative Indian Ocean Dipole. Luana developed in late January 2026 and made landfall near Broome, Western Australia, on 25 January. Following its crossing of the coast, the system continued to track inland, sustained in part by the brown ocean effect — a phenomenon in which moisture from saturated soils helps maintain a cyclone's intensity after landfall.

Luana was one of eleven named storms in a season that produced seven severe tropical cyclones overall. It formed amid a rapid succession of systems in the season's opening months; six named cyclones had already developed or entered the Australian region by early January, making it the most active start to a season in the region since 1973–74. Luana followed shortly after Tropical Cyclone Koji, which had affected Queensland in mid-January, and preceded Tropical Cyclone Mitchell, which tracked along the Pilbara coast and made landfall in early February. Specific details regarding Luana's peak category, central pressure, and the extent of damage or casualties associated with the storm are not documented in the available source material beyond its landfall location and subsequent inland track.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia