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On 20 December 1974, the
United States' ESSA-8 environmental satellite recorded a large cloud mass centered over the Arafura Sea about 370 kilometres northeast of
Darwin. This disturbance was tracked by the
Darwin Weather Bureau's regional director Ray Wilkie, and by senior meteorologist Geoff Crane. On 21 December 1974, ESSA-8 showed evidence of a newly formed circular centre near latitude 8° south and longitude 135° east.
The meteorological duty officer at the time, Geoff Crane, issued the initial tropical cyclone alert describing the storm as a tropical low that could develop into a tropical cyclone.
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Later in the evening, the
Darwin meteorological office received an infrared satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's satellite, NOAA-4, showing that the low pressure had developed further and that spiraling clouds could be observed. The storm was officially pronounced a tropical cyclone at around 10 p.m. on 21 December, when it was around 200 kilometres to the north-northeast of
Cape Don 700 km northeast of
Darwin. Over the next few days, the cyclone moved in a southwesterly direction, passing north of
Darwin on 22 December. A broadcast on ABC Radio that day stated that Cyclone Tracy posed no immediate threat to
Darwin. However, early in the morning of 24 December, Tracy rounded Cape Fourcroy on the western tip of
Bathurst Island, and moved in a southeasterly direction, straight towards
Darwin.
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By late afternoon, the sky over the city was heavily overcast, with low clouds, and was experiencing strong rain. Wind gusts increased in strength; between 10 p.m. local time and midnight, the damage became serious, and residents began to realize that the cyclone would not just pass by the city, but rather over it. Despite Tracy's small size, the cyclone passed directly over
Darwin after midnight, with its eye centered on the airport and northern suburbs. The wind gauge at
Darwin Airport officially recorded winds of 217 km/h before being blown away itself.
Unofficial estimates suggested that the wind speed had reached 300 km/h .The Bureau of Meteorology's official estimates suggested that Tracy's gusts had reached 240 km/h .The winds and torrential rain continued until early dawn.
Darwin had been severely battered by cyclones before; in January 1897 and again in March 1937.However, in the 20 years leading up to Cyclone Tracy, the city had undergone a period of rapid expansion. E.P. Milliken estimated that on the eve of the cyclone there were 43,500 people living in 12,000 dwellings in the
Darwin area. Though building standards required that some attention be given to the possibility of cyclones, most buildings were not capable of withstanding the force of a cyclone's direct hit.
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On the day of the cyclone, most residents of
Darwin believed that the cyclone would not cause any damage to the city. Cyclone Selma had been predicted to hit
Darwin earlier in the month, but it instead went north and dissipated without affecting
Darwin in any way. As a result, Cyclone Tracy took most
Darwin residents by surprise. Despite several warnings the people of
Darwin did not evacuate or prepare for the cyclone. Many residents continued to prepare for Christmas, and many attended Christmas parties, despite the increasing winds and heavy rain.
Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated
Darwin on Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, 1974. It was the most compact cyclone on record in the Australian basin, with gale-force winds extending only 48 kilometres from the centre and was the most compact system world-wide until 2008 when Tropical Storm Marco of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season broke the record, with gale-force winds extending only 19 kilometres from the centre. After forming over the Arafura Sea, the storm moved upward and affected the city with Category 4 winds on the Australian cyclone intensity scale, while there is evidence to suggest that it had reached Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale when it made landfall.
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Tracy killed 71 people, Injured 650 caused $837 million in damage and destroyed more than 70 percent of
Darwin's buildings, including 80 percent of houses.Tracy left homeless more than 20,000 out of the 49,000 inhabitants of the city prior to landfall and required the evacuation of 35,362 people.Most of
Darwin's
population was evacuated to
Adelaide,
Whyalla,
Alice Springs and
Sydney, and many never returned to the city. After the storm passed, the city was rebuilt using more modern materials and updated building techniques. Bruce Stannard of The Age stated that Cyclone Tracy was a "disaster of the first magnitude ... without parallel in Australia's history."
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