Flying Visit by
p. 141 · Read in the full issue
N. Caledonian
Cyclone
Flying Visit by “Gedeon”
Ei AIN which had been threaten i ing since the New Year started to fall in New Caledonia on January 5. It continued steadily for 48 hours. The rain was the spear head of a short but violent cyclone which hit the island late January 6.
The cyclone formed in the north of the Coral Sea and remained stationary near the Chesterfield Islands. It then slowly descended towards the northern end of New Caledonia some 100 kilometres off the coast. On the night of January 5, the depression, almost without warning, crossed New Caledonia from the West to the East with its centre about half-way up the island. It passed over the island towards the Loyalty Group and made off towards the south of the New Hebrides. Maximum wind velocity registered was 150 kilo metres an hour at Noumea. It was certainly much higher towards the centre of the depression.
At Noumea which had been a month without rain, 212 mm. fell on the night of January 6. Yate, site of the hydro-electric plant, registered 300 mm.
Damage was less than expected, due mainly to the rapidity with which the depression passed over the island and out to sea. An appreciable amount of damage was done to crops in country centres; roads were washed out and many mining centres suffered damage.
It was New Caledonia’s first cyclone of the season and one of the local papers christened it “Gedeon.”