OK peoples, the data is in.
At this stage, Tropical Cyclone Fina is official.
Below is the BoM Report:
Tropical Cyclone Fina initially developed over the northern Coral Sea, southeast of Papua New Guinea, on the 18th December 2011. Fina generally moved in a southerly direction over the next few days under the influence of a weak upper ridge situated to the east of the system. Fina managed to develop into a tropical cyclone for a short period of time during the early hours of the 22nd December prior to the system being impacted by an amplifying upper trough across eastern Australia.
Fina weakened below tropical cyclone strength early in the afternoon on the 22nd of December. Despite weakening below tropical cyclone strength, Fina managed to develop storm force winds in the following days as an extra-tropical system while also delivering dangerous surf conditions to southeast Queensland during Christmas.
***All information relating to intensity and track is preliminary information based on operational estimates and subject to change following post analysis***
Extreme values during cyclone event (estimated)
Note that these values may be changed on the receipt of later information:
Maximum Category: 1
Maximum sustained wind speed: 65 km/h
Maximum wind gust: 95 km/h
Lowest central pressure: 994 hPa 
This provides us with a result for Question # 6: Lowest Pressure of First Cyclone.
Scoring System for this category:
5 Points – Within 5 hPa
4 Points – Within 10 hPa
3 Points – Within 15 hPa
2 Points – Within 20 hPa
1 Point – Within 30 hPa
1 Error Point allocated for each hPa inaccuracy.Top 40 Contestants:
Well done to dawoodman, EddyG and Antonio-stormboy, each within 1 hPa.
Also, over the past couple days we were entertained by Tropical Cyclone Heidi – a remarkable system which kept the BoM staff on their toes for quite a while. Originally Heidi was expected to cross the Pilbara Coast as a Tropical Low. Before long Heidi had formed, and contrary to initial expectations managed to intensify into a high-range Category 2 Cyclone.
Heidi eventually crossed the coast just east of Port Hedland early Thursday morning. The highest recorded wind gust of 132km/h was observed at the Port Hedland Airport AWS, however as this station was located on the south-western side of the eye it would be expected that maximum wind gust on the south-eastern quadrant were in the vicinity of 150 – 160km/h.
Heidi continued to track SSW, maintaining an excellent structure and circulation for several hours well into inland communities.
Click the below image to view the radar animation of Cyclone Heidi as she approached and crossed the NW WA Coast:
Tropical Cyclone Heidi
A number of contestants forecasted Heidi to be the season’s most intense cyclone, these included:
• Crookhaven River
• Rainrunner
• PV Weather
• Wet-Ish
• Lightning….LEE
• Dawoodman
• Jesse24
• Occo
Currently, Heidi is the most intense cyclone this season superseding TC Grant, although with a good 16 weeks of the cyclone season remaining, it’s highly likely there will be others more severe. Despite this, Heidi managed to accumulate 4 points to the above listed contestants – which will be added to the scoreboard at a later date.
Heidi also produced heavy rainfall throughout the Pilbara Region, including 108mm at the Port Hedland AWS. This is currently the second highest daily total for eligible locations in Category # 19. Cairns retains the lead with the 200mm+ fall back in October.
Furthermore, the formation of Heidi and confirmation of Fina also completed results for Category # 5: Location of First Cyclone Formation
TC Heidi was the first Australian named Cyclone of the season which formed on December 22nd. Just a few days later TC Grant popped up in Northern waters, followed by Heidi this week in the Western Region. The Far Western Region was the first to produce a cyclone (Cyclone Alenga December 7th), however as this formed outside Australia’s Area of Responsibility it is not eligible for this category.
Scoring System:
5 Points – Correct Answer
2 Points – Selecting the second different region a cyclone forms within
1 Point – Selecting the third different region a cyclone forms within
Allocation of Error Points:
• 0 error points allocated for selecting the correct region the first cyclone forms
• 10 error points allocated for selecting second different region a cyclone forms
• 20 error points allocated for selecting third different region a cyclone forms
• 30 error points allocated for selecting last region a cyclone forms or if region selected produces no cyclones throughout seasonTop 40 Contestants:
Well done to Beachcomber for topping the chart.
Now for the updated overall Top 30 Leader board:
• Despite a poor performance over recent categories WWW retains the lead, although highly likely to be overtaking during the next update.
• BigJohn attains the lowest error rate, forcing Crookhaven River down a place.
• Nice jump by Jesse and Mathew, after receiving maximum points for the last 2 categories.
• Overall a very tight race, who will win?
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