Queensland, Australia was recently hit by its second tropical cyclone of the season.

Estimates for the 1-week period March 15 to 22, 2010 for the central east coast of Queensland, Australia show that Ului dumped upwards of 180 mm (~7 inches, shown in orange) of rain along its path.

Tropical Cyclone Olga, which made landfall on the east coast of Queensland just south of Cairns back in late January, brought widespread rains to the region. The most recent cyclone to hit Queensland is Tropical Cyclone Ului, which also made landfall on the east coast of Queensland but much farther south near Airlie Beach south of Townsville.

Ului, which formed near Vanuatu in the South Pacific, was at one time a powerful Category 5 cyclone with winds estimated at 140 knots (~160 mph) as it passed well to the south of the Solomon Islands. The cyclone then weakened as it turned southwest and headed through the Coral Sea towards Australia. Ului hit the Whitsunday Islands, located just off the Australian mainland, early Sunday morning (about 1:30 am local time) on the 21st of March 2010 as a Category 3 cyclone with winds gusting to 200 kph (~125 mph, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane on the US Saffir-Simpson scale).

Tropical Storm Imani Making a Question Mark in the Southern Indian Ocean

Over the last week, the path that Tropical Storm Imani, formerly tropical cyclone 21S, is making in the Southern Indian Ocean resembles a question mark. However, there is no question in the minds of forecasters that Imani is headed south to finish out the “question mark” shape.

This graphic from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center shows that Tropical Storm Imani’s path over the last couple of days looks like a question mark.

At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) today, March 24, Tropical Storm Imani had maximum sustained winds near 63 mph (55 knots). Tropical storm-force winds extended out up to 55 miles from the center, making the storm about 110 miles in diameter. It was located about 745 miles west-southwest of Cocos Island, near 15.7 south and 86.3 East. It was moving southwest near 13 mph (11 knots).