Cyclone Monica’s track is shown in Figure 1. It began as a tropical depression on 16 April 2006, in
association with an equatorial Rossby wave [3]. From its formation area to the east of Papua New
Guinea, it drifted southwest into the Coral Sea and intensified [4]; it was christened Cyclone Monica
at 0000 UTC on 17 April. Upon reaching tropical storm strength, it took a more westward track and
reached hurricane force prior to making its first landfall on the Queensland Australia coast on the
afternoon of 19 April. It weakened as it crossed the Cape York Peninsula into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Once over water again it began to intensify rapidly as it moved northwestward. On 23 April it took a
more westward track along the northern coast of the Northern Territory of Australia. It paralleled the
coast and then turned southwest, making its second landfall around 1000 UTC on 24 April as an
intense tropical cyclone. The location of landfall was in an unpopulated region at Junction Bay, over
40 km to the west of the town of Maningrida, as shown on the inset in Figure 1, based on the BOM
track data [5]. Just prior to landfall, it actually came within about 35 km of Maningrida. Images of
Cyclone Monica from spaceborne radar, visible,