Cyclone Close to Vanuatu, History
By
Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor
Published Oct 24, 2006 8:44 PM EST
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Updated Mar 13, 2015 1:57 PM EST
2015 UPDATE: The list below has been updated in this blog entry!
Tropical Cyclone Xavier is getting close to the island nation of Vanuatu [WikiPedia] (of Survivor Fame) this evening. The satellite shot below shows Xavier to the right of the islands. At this time the Navy predicts it to get no closer to the islands than it is now.
Jim Andrews (PREMIUM | PRO) believes this is the first sign of increased activity due to El Nino: "One of the strong links attributed to El Nino is that between higher tropical cyclone frequency over the tropical South Pacific Ocean and the presence of El Nino."
It is hard to find historical cyclone information for Vanuatu because it is in the Southern Hemisphere. Here what I have uncovered. UN records only go through 2003 and some of these may not have been tropical cyclones.
12/24/1951 - 100 killed by wind storm; considered country's worst natural disaster (UN)
2/2/1972 - 4 killed by wind storm (UN)
1/16/1985 - 9 killed, 100,000 affected by wind storm (UN)
2/7/1987 - 48 killed, 48,000 affected by wind storm (UN)
1/05/1998 - Cyclone Susan makes a close approach (Wikipedia)
1/11/1998 - 4,700 affected by wind storm (possibly Cyclone Susan?) (UN)
3/31/1998 - 2,400 affected by wind storm (UN)
8/1988 - 2,000 affected by wind storm (UN)
1/9/1992 - 2 killed by wind storm (UN)
3/9/1992 - 1,150 affected by wind storm (UN)
5/8/1999 - 32 killed by wind storm (UN)
4/7/2001 - 1 killed by wind storm (UN)
2/28/2001 - killed by wind storm (UN)
12/30/2002 - Cyclone Zoe makes a close pass (NASA) and Vanuatu was "inundated with seawater" (WikiPedia)
1/7/2003 - Heavy damage from rainstorms (Environment News Service)
3/30/2003 - 4 killed, 12,000 affected by wind storm (UN)
2/26/2004 - Cyclone Ivy tracks directly over the islands with 110 knot winds, affecting 54,000 people and killing two. This was the worst cyclone there since the Internet era. (OCHA)
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