The Australian region has averaged 10.5 named tropical cyclones a season since 1972–73, and 5.3 of them have reached category 3 or stronger. The number has fallen over the period: 12.0 a season in the 27 seasons to 1998–99 and 9.1 in the 27 since. No season since 1999–2000 has had 13 or more, a number reached in 16 of the 28 seasons up to and including it. The 2025–26 season had 11 cyclones, 7 of them category 3 or stronger.
Counts are for the Australian region, south of the equator between 90°E and 160°E, from the Bureau of Meteorology’s database of past cyclone tracks.
What is measured
The Bureau of Meteorology keeps a database of every tropical cyclone known to have occurred in the Australian region. After each cyclone, its meteorologists review the observations and settle a ‘best track’: the position, central pressure and wind speed of the system every few hours. This article counts cyclones by season from that database.
A cyclone is counted here if it carries a name in the database and reached a mean wind of at least 63 kilometres an hour, gale force, while south of the equator between longitudes 90°E and 160°E. A cyclone of category 3 or stronger is one that reached a mean wind of at least 118 kilometres an hour, the threshold at which the Bureau’s five-step scale moves from category 2 to category 3. A season runs from July to June, and is counted from 1972–73, the first season in which the database records wind speeds for nearly every system. The region is much larger than the Australian coast, and most cyclones counted here did not cross it.
Season by season
Named tropical cyclones in the Australian region, by season, 1972–73 to 2025–26
APN calculation based on Bureau of Meteorology data: Australian Tropical Cyclone Database, seasons 1972–73 to 2025–26, best track file IDCKMSTM0S, updated 12 October 2026. A named tropical cyclone is a system in the database that carries a name and reached a mean wind of at least 63 kilometres an hour while south of the equator between 90°E and 160°E. Category 3 or stronger means a mean wind of at least 118 kilometres an hour. A season runs from July to June.
The count varies widely from one season to the next, from 19 in 1973–74 to 3 in 2015–16, the only one of the 54 seasons with no cyclone of category 3 or stronger. Behind that variation the level has come down. Thirteen or more cyclones formed in 16 of the 28 seasons to 1999–2000 and in none of the 26 since. Only one season since 2000–01 has had 12.
The earliest seasons are not fully comparable with later ones. The Bureau notes that historical cyclone data have limitations because observing practices and technology have changed, and it bases its own seasonal averages on seasons from 1980–81. Counted from that season, the average is 11.5 named cyclones a season in the 20 seasons to 1999–2000 and 8.9 in the 26 since; for category 3 or stronger, 6.35 and 4.27.
Decade by decade
Average named tropical cyclones a season
APN calculation based on Bureau of Meteorology data: Australian Tropical Cyclone Database, seasons 1972–73 to 2025–26, best track file IDCKMSTM0S. Average number of named tropical cyclones a season; the average number that reached category 3 or stronger is shown beside each bar. The first group covers eight seasons and the last six.
The average fell from 13.2 a season in the 1970s seasons counted to 9.0 in the 2000s and 8.8 in the 2010s, and has been 9.0 in the six seasons from 2020–21. Cyclones of category 3 or stronger averaged a little over six a season in each of the first three groups and 4.0 in the 2000s and 2010s. The six most recent seasons have averaged 5.2, with 8 in 2024–25 and 7 in 2025–26. Across the 54 seasons, 51% of named cyclones reached category 3 or stronger.
Where they form
Average named tropical cyclones a season, 1972–73 to 1998–99, by longitude
APN calculation based on Bureau of Meteorology data: Australian Tropical Cyclone Database, seasons 1972–73 to 2025–26, best track file IDCKMSTM0S. Average number of named tropical cyclones a season in the 27 seasons to 1998–99, by the longitude at which each first reached gale force; the average for the 27 seasons since is shown beside each bar.
| Where the cyclone first reached gale force | Cyclones, 54 seasons | Share | A season, 1972–73 to 1998–99 | A season, 1999–00 to 2025–26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West of 125°E (Indian Ocean and north-west coast) | 306 | 53.9% | 6.4 | 5.0 |
| 125°E to 142.5°E (Timor and Arafura seas, Gulf of Carpentaria) | 102 | 18.0% | 2.1 | 1.6 |
| East of 142.5°E (Coral Sea) | 160 | 28.2% | 3.4 | 2.5 |
APN calculation based on Bureau of Meteorology data: Australian Tropical Cyclone Database, seasons 1972–73 to 2025–26, best track file IDCKMSTM0S. Average number of named tropical cyclones a season in the 27 seasons to 1998–99, by the longitude at which each first reached gale force; the average for the 27 seasons since is shown beside each bar.
More than half of the region’s cyclones first reach gale force west of 125°E, over the Indian Ocean and off the north-west coast of Western Australia. The Coral Sea, east of 142.5°E, accounts for 28% and the waters between for 18%. The average has fallen in all three bands between the first and second halves of the period.
The lowest pressures in 54 seasons
| Cyclone | Season | Lowest central pressure, hectopascals |
|---|---|---|
| Gwenda | 1998–99 | 900 |
| George | 2006–07 | 902 |
| Orson | 1988–89 | 905 |
| Marcus | 2017–18 | 905 |
APN calculation based on Bureau of Meteorology data: Australian Tropical Cyclone Database, seasons 1972–73 to 2025–26, best track file IDCKMSTM0S. Lowest central pressure recorded for each cyclone while in the region.
Central pressure is one measure of a cyclone’s intensity: the lower the pressure, the stronger the system. The four cyclones with the lowest pressures in the 54 seasons all first reached gale force between longitudes 123°E and 132°E, in the seas north of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
What this does not show
This is a count of cyclones in a large ocean region, not of cyclones that reached land, and it says nothing about damage. A season with few cyclones can include one that crosses a populated coast. The way cyclones are observed has changed over 54 years, with better satellite coverage and new methods of estimating wind speed, so the intensity of earlier systems is known less precisely than that of recent ones. The count here uses a single rule applied to the Bureau’s track data and can differ by one or two in a season from the Bureau’s own seasonal summaries, which rest on its meteorologists’ classification of each system. The database also holds tropical lows that reached gale force in part of their circulation without being named; these are not counted. The figures describe the past and are not a forecast.
- Bureau of Meteorology (Reference period: 1907 to April 2026) Australian Tropical Cyclone Database: database of past tropical cyclone tracks (best track file IDCKMSTM0S) [http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/tropical-cyclone-knowledge-centre/databases/], accessed 12 October 2026.
Data © Bureau of Meteorology. Calculations, definitions and groupings are APN’s and are not attributable to the Bureau.
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