Cyclone Mahina
Cyclone Mahina was a catastrophic tropical storm that struck Queensland, Australia, on March 4 and 5, 1899, and is recognized as the deadliest natural disaster in the nation's recorded history. It is believed to have been a Category 5 storm, characterized by sustained winds of approximately 162 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour). The cyclone resulted in an estimated death toll of between 300 and 400 people, primarily involving crew members of pearling ships, with the exact figures remaining uncertain due to incomplete records. Notably, it generated a storm surge that reached heights of 43 feet (13 meters) and triggered a tsunami with waves reaching 48 feet (14.6 meters). Despite significant media coverage at the time, Cyclone Mahina faded from public memory, partially attributed to the diverse nationalities of its victims, which included individuals from South America, Japan, and various Pacific Islands. Recent scientific reassessments in the 2010s suggest that Cyclone Mahina may have been the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. The storm's lasting impact continues to inform contemporary meteorological research, enhancing understanding of severe weather patterns and improving early warning systems for future cyclones.
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Cyclone Mahina
Cyclone Mahina was a deadly storm that struck the Australian state of Queensland on March 4 and 5, 1899. The cyclone occurred during the final weeks of the summer season in Australia and remains the deadliest natural disaster in the country’s recorded history. Following reassessments by contemporary experts in the 2010s, many scientists now believe that Cyclone Mahina may also have been the most powerful tropical cyclone ever to have occurred in the Southern Hemisphere. The storm left between 300 and 400 people dead.
Overview
A cyclone can form when a weather system generates high winds that spin inward toward a pocket of low atmospheric pressure. The inward-spinning winds rotate clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and can create powerful thunderstorms without storm fronts, which are transition zones that usually indicate a storm system’s limiting edge. Scientists measure the relative intensity of such storms using a categorized scale that ranks them on levels from one to five, with five being the strongest. Cyclone Mahina was a Category 5 tropical storm.
The cyclone originated at sea and made landfall at Bathurst Bay in Queensland on March 4, 1899. It continued until the next day and was marked by sustained winds that scientists estimate at around 162 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour). Much of what history records about Cyclone Mahina comes from eyewitness reports logged by those who survived the event. These mainly include anecdotes providing glimpses into the storm’s unprecedented power and destructiveness.
One such report notes that the remains of sea porpoises were found scattered atop cliffs overlooking the Queensland coast. They had been thrown to heights of 50 feet (15.2 meters) by enormous waves known as swells that can occur in cyclonal weather systems. Another report comes from residents of Thursday Island, an area that is hundreds of miles away from where the storm’s epicenter made landfall. Thursday Island locals say that the cyclone was accompanied by lightning so intense that its flashes bridged the horizons at opposite ends of the sky. A third report was submitted by crew members aboard a rescue ship that sailed through affected areas on March 10, 1899. They stated that the cyclone had completely removed all traces of trees and grass from the storm’s impact zone. In Bathurst Bay, a police constable who had camped on a ridged clifftop awoke in the middle of the night to find that his horses had been washed away. The police officer spent a week returning to the nearest settlement (Cooktown) on foot, during which time he saw impacts consistent with a storm surge of at least 43 feet (13 meters). This level of storm surge, which measures the change in sea level caused by a storm, would have established a new world record at the time.
The cyclone also triggered a tsunami, which is a massive wave or series of waves that can occur when large volumes of water are displaced by a major storm, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, or other natural disaster. Cyclone Mahina created a tsunami reported to have reached a height of 48 feet (14.6 meters), affecting parts of Queensland up to 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) off the coast.
Only one ship managed to survive the storm. Its instruments recorded the cyclone’s intensity at 880 hectopascals. One hectopascal represents one hundred times the force of a pascal, which is the international standard for measuring atmospheric pressure. Average atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1,013.25 hectopascals, with the 880 hectopascal measurement thus reflecting a highly unusual and atypically intense pocket of extremely low pressure.
When it occurred, Cyclone Mahina received significant coverage in the Australian media but lapsed into obscurity relatively quickly. In the 2010s, Queensland-based scientific research teams began revisiting records related to Cyclone Mahina in a bid to enhance their understanding of the storm. Their findings suggest that Cyclone Mahina’s actual intensity was likely much higher than official records indicate, noting that multiple phenomena documented in the aftermath of the storm could not have occurred at the storm’s initially reported strength. These researchers have since approached the World Meteorological Association (WMO) in a bid to amend the body’s historical records related to storm intensity. They believe that Cyclone Mahina is not only the deadliest and most powerful tropical storm ever to strike Australia but also the strongest cyclone ever observed in the Southern Hemisphere. Though insufficient data is available to officially support this claim, a consensus of contemporary observers believes that it is likely true.
Impact
The part of Queensland where Cyclone Mahina made landfall was not heavily or densely populated at the time. As such, human loss of life was relatively limited, given the storm’s unprecedented power. Experts believe that if a similar event occurred today and impacted a major coastal city, tens of thousands of deaths would likely result.
Most retrospective accounts of Cyclone Mahina place the number of deaths around 300, but a report from the March 14, 1899, edition of the Sydney Morning Herald placed the number of fatalities at 414. Most of those who died were working aboard pearling ships seeking jewels in the waters off the Queensland coast. An unknown number of ships—estimated to be in the hundreds—were also destroyed, damaged, or lost in the storm. Notably, some experts believe that the Sydney Morning Herald was inaccurate, noting a lack of evidence for claims that one hundred local Aboriginal Australians were killed in a tsunami while attempting to assist the seafarers stranded on the pearling vessels. A University of Queensland postgraduate researcher found 282 documented deaths directly resulting from Cyclone Mahina but believes the actual death toll exceeds three hundred.
Some contemporary researchers opine that Cyclone Mahina quickly passed from the Australian national consciousness because the majority of those killed were not Australian citizens. Most of the pearling ship crew members who perished in the storm were from South America, Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere in the Pacific Islands. Thus, the true extent of Cyclone Mahina’s human impact remains unknown. Further, humans were not the only lives impacted by the storm. Marine life and its habitat were devastated by Cyclone Mahina.
Cyclones continue to affect Australia each year. Although Cyclone Mahina happened over a century ago, the event and analysis of its historical data continue to provide twenty-first-century scientists with valuable information to better understand modern severe weather events. Studying Cyclone Mahina helps modern scientists better construct early warning systems, create accurate models of storm surge impacts, study the effects of climate change, refine scientific techniques, and promote interdisciplinary study of meteorological events.
Bibliography
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“Cyclone Mahina.” Green Cross Australia, 2021, hardenup.org/be-aware/weather-events/events/1890-1899/cyclone-mahina-1899-03-05.aspx. Accessed 14 Sept. 2021.
“Defining Moments: Cyclone Mahina.” National Museum Australia, 1 July 2021, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/cyclone-mahina. Accessed 16 May 2024.
“From the Archives, 1899: Cyclone Malina Kills Hundreds in Queensland.” Brisbane Times, 3 Mar. 2020, www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/from-the-archives-1899-cyclone-mahina-kills-hundreds-in-queensland-20200227-p544vn.html. Accessed 14 Sept. 2021.
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Kerr, Jack. “Tropical Cyclone Mahina: Bid to Have Deadly March 1899 Weather Event Upgraded in Record Books.” Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 26 Dec. 2014, www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-26/cyclone-mahina/5964342. Accessed 16 May 2024.
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