For those who missed it, we have had a TC spin up in the southern Branch
of the double ITCZ we were discussing.  The following was posted to the
tropical storms list:

John McB
 

From: Gary Padgett <garyp@alaweb.com>
To: TropicalStorms <tropical-storms@tstorms.org>
Subject: [Tropical-storms] Name of Tropical Cyclone 25P
 

For those interested, the official name of Tropical Cyclone 25P in the
Solomon Islands area is UPIA, assigned by the warning center at
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.   They are the offical WMO-recognized
warning agency for a limited region north of Brisbane's AOR.   However,
due to some apparent computer problems, their warnings are not getting
out.   Below is one Brisbane wrote on UPIA at 0600 UTC.  (This is the
first system named by PNG in nine years.)

Best regards,
Gary

HIGH SEAS FORECAST FOR METAREA 10
NORTH EASTERN AREA EQUATOR TO 28S, 142E TO 170E
ISSUED BY THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, BRISBANE
FOR 24 HOURS FROM 1100UTC 26 May 2002

PART 1  WARNINGS
Nil.
Note.. Tropical Cyclone UPIA has been located as per details below.
However no warnings have been received from the Papua New Guinea Weather Service.

PART 2  SITUATION
At 260600UTC...Tropical cyclone "Upia" located near 8.5S 153.3E with
central pressure 1000hpa at 260600Z. The cyclone has moved SSE at 4 knots in the
last few hours. It is expected near 10.0S153E by 271200Z. A trough extends from
4S142E to tropical cyclone to 8S170E. A weak low is located near 28.5S159E
and expected to move NNE and weaken.
 

PART 3  FORECAST
Within 60NM of tropical cyclone... Clockwise winds 34/40 knots with seas
very rough to high and increasing swells. Rain areas and thunderstorms.

Elsewhere north of trough... SW to NW winds 10/20 knots, increasing to 33
knots near tropical cyclone. Slight to moderate seas, increasing to rough near
tropical cyclone. Showers, rain areas and scattered thunderstorms.

South of 25S... SW winds 15/20 knots W of 160E and SE winds 15/20 knots
elsewhere. Moderate seas. Isolated showers.

Remainder... SE to E winds 15/20 knots, increasing to 33 knots near
tropical cyclone. Seas slight to moderate, increasing to rough near tropical
cyclone. Scattered showers, rain areas and thunderstorms E of 150E and N of 17N.
Isolated showers elsewhere.

 WEATHER BRISBANE

Satellite Images:

Jeff Callaghan
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 09:29:55 +1000
From: Jeff Callaghan <j.callaghan@bom.gov.au>
To: Tropical Storms email list <tropical-storms@tstorms.org>
Cc: publicwx@pngmet.gov.pg, s.maiha@pngmet.gov.pg
Subject: [Tropical-storms] Upia

We here in Brisbane would like to acknowledge the great work the PNG
cyclone forecasters did during Upia. They don't get many tropical cyclones
in their area of responsibility but despite this they retain great interest
in these systems and during the event made excellent use of new web based
technologies such as Jeff Hawkin's SSMI/TRMM site, Chris Velden's CIMSS
site and the various Quikscat sites.

This surely is an example of how the web can help forecasters in countries
like PNG
Jeff