{"id":270136,"date":"2026-01-06T10:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/270136\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:59:10","slug":"tropical-cyclone-jenna-the-second-system-to-lash-cocos-keeling-islands-in-less-than-two-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/270136\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical Cyclone Jenna the second system to lash Cocos Keeling Islands in less than two weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been an unusually busy cyclone season for northern Western Australia, with the Cocos Keeling Islands lashed by a second system in two weeks.<\/p>\n

On Monday afternoon, Tropical Cyclone Jenna was the second system to impact the islands<\/a> after Tropical Cyclone Grant struck on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Tropical Cyclone Jenna passed to the east of the islands as a category one cyclone, bringing gale force winds with gusts up to 91 kilometres an hour as well as 7 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to 11am Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Only two of the 27 islands more than 1,000km off the Western Australian coast are inhabited, by around 600 people.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Banana trees were down on one property on West Island. (Supplied: John Clunies-Ross)<\/p>\n

Unusual habits<\/p>\n

Initially forecast to pass the islands as a tropical low, Tropical Cyclone Jenna quickly intensified into a category one cyclone as it passed the islands, before later strengthening to category two intensity on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Residents have reported minor flooding, leaky roofs and fallen trees.<\/p>\n

However, the lagoon that connects the islands has reopened and flights were expected to resume on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Cocos Keeling Islands Tourism Association chair and resident for over 30 years Dieter Gerhard said two systems passing so close together was unusual.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dieter Gerhard is the chair of the Cocos Keeling Islands Tourism Association and runs dive tours on the islands. (Zoom)<\/p>\n

“Normally after a tropical low or cyclone, we’d hope to see three to six weeks of, you know, pretty settled conditions,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[We] normally expect one to have gone past by now, but Mother Nature has doubled it and given us a bonus one.<\/p>\n

“Here’s hoping that that’s not setting the trend for the season.”<\/p>\n

A record cyclone season ahead?<\/p>\n

Tropical Cyclone Jenna is the third tropical cyclone to form off the WA coast in the past two weeks and the fifth for the Australian season.<\/p>\n

The 2024\/25 cyclone season saw 12 cyclones in Australian waters, while 2023\/24 had eight.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tropical Cyclone Jenna intensified from a tropical low into a cyclone right as it passed by the islands. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)<\/p>\n

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) meteorologist Grace Abbott said time would tell what 2026 had in store.<\/p>\n

“It is uncommon to have quite this many systems before new year’s or \u2026 just after the new year,” Ms Abbott said.<\/p>\n

“So we are off to a quite a frequent start to the season.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The BOM said smaller systems had the ability to strengthen and decrease more quickly than larger systems, making forecasting difficult.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Residents did not have to shelter as the cyclone passed as a category one on Monday afternoon. (Supplied: Elizabeth Barton)<\/p>\n

“It looks as if it strengthened a little bit quicker than we’d forecast, maybe three to six hours earlier, and so therefore strengthened to a cyclone \u2026 just to the east of the island,” Ms Abbott said.<\/p>\n

“They can be very tricky beasts and I assure you that we are doing the best we can with the intensity, but that is one of the hardest parts of cyclone forecasting.”<\/p>\n

Islands’ future<\/p>\n

Kuranda Seyit, the manager of accommodation business Oceania House, said the island was low-lying and more susceptible to flood damage due to its rounded shape and lack of drainage.<\/p>\n

\"Trees<\/p>\n

Trees were blown down in the backyard of Oceania House, a short-stay accommodation provider on Home Island. (Supplied: Oceania House)<\/p>\n

“It was a pretty rough day yesterday \u2014 a lot of high winds and much more rain this time,” Mr Seyit said.<\/p>\n

“But generally speaking, everybody’s safe and yeah, we got through it again.<\/p>\n

“Compared to the Christmas Day cyclone, I think this was either the same or even maybe just a bit stronger.”<\/p>\n

Mr Seyit worried about what would happen if anything stronger impacted the islands.<\/p>\n

“I think the residents are very nonchalant about cyclones as they leave everything in the hands of God,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“One thing that needs to be discussed is the drainage behind all the houses.<\/p>\n

\"grey<\/p>\n

Wild waters off the coast of the Cocos Islands have been kept at bay by sandbags. (Supplied: Elizabeth Barton)<\/p>\n

“It’s not wide enough and overflows every time it rains heavily, a survey needs to be carried out and assessment to see if it can be fixed.<\/p>\n

“Other than that, there is some sandbagging needed on the south side and some sandbags need repair.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been an unusually busy cyclone season for northern Western Australia, with the Cocos Keeling Islands lashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[137862,137856,137858,137859,18,440,24153,19,17,133,137857,137861,137860,22638],"class_list":{"0":"post-270136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-bureau-of-meterology","9":"tag-cocos-keeling-islands","10":"tag-cyclone-jenna","11":"tag-cyclone-season","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-flooding","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-tc-jenna","19":"tag-tropical-cyclone-grant","20":"tag-tropical-cyclone-hayley","21":"tag-wa-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115847808051784544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}