On January 11, 2012, Tropical Cyclone Heidi was located roughly 45 nautical miles (85 kilometers) from Port Hedland, Australia. The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Heidi packed maximum sustained winds of 55 knots (100 kilometers per hour) with gusts up to 70 knots (130 kilometers per hour). The storm was moving toward the south-southwest.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on January 11, 2012. The center of the storm is north-northeast of Port Hedland, and storm clouds extended over much of the northwestern Australia coast.

The JTWC forecast that Heidi would make landfall slightly west of Port Hedland. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that flooding was expected overnight January 11–12, and that residents of low-lying areas should relocate to emergency shelters. Perth Now reported iron ore exports from Port Hedland had been disrupted, with terminals shut down ahead of the storm.

Several months after flooding struck the region, Cambodia’s Tônlé Sab (Tonle Sap) and Thailand’s Chao Phraya River remained visibly flooded. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the top image on January 8, 2012.

This images use a combination of visible and infrared light to better distinguish between water and land. Water ranges in color from electric blue to navy. Vegetation is green. Bare ground and urban areas are earth-toned. Clouds vary in color from pale blue-green to white.

Compared to the previous year, higher water levels are apparent northwest of Bangkok in January 2012. Water levels are also higher in Tônlé Sab. CARE Cambodia described the floods as the worst in Southeast Asia in over a decade, and reported that 1.5 million people throughout the region had been affected.