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Five cyclones named, Gretel up next

Ben Domensino, Thursday February 27, 2020 - 15:03 AEDT

As February draws to a close, five tropical cyclones have been named in Australia's area of responsibility since the start of the season.

The Australian tropical cyclone season runs from November to April, during which time we see an average of 11 to 12 named tropical cyclones move through our region.

However, Australia only assigns names to systems that first become tropical cyclones within our country's area of responsibility. If a tropical cyclone forms outside our region, it is named by a neighbouring governing body, such as Indonesia or Fiji. To avoid confusion, this name is retained if the cyclone crosses into the Australian region, even if it makes landfall on our shores. This was the case with Tropical Cyclone Yasi back in 2011.

Image: Tropical Cyclone Esther over the southern Gulf of Carpentaria on January 24th.

So far this season, Tropical Cyclones Blake, Claudia, Damian, Esther and Ferdinand have all been named in the Australian region. In addition to these Australian-named systems, Tropical Cyclone Uesi entered our waters after forming near New Caledonia in early February.

The next tropical cyclone that forms in Australian waters will be named Gretel. Then, depending on how many more cyclones form in our region before the end of the season, the following names will be Harold, Imogen, Joshua, Kimi and Lucas.

Image: Tropical cyclone names used this season (dashed out) and upcoming in the Australian region.

- Weatherzone

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