Cyclone Drena
Cyclone Drena was a tropical cyclone that hit New Zealand on the 10th
of January 1997. It was the second cyclone to hit New Zealand within two
weeks - the first being Cyclone Fergus which hit on December 30 1996.
Cyclone Drena Timeline
Wednesday January 8 1997
A tropical cyclone appears over New Caledonia on the forecast map in
the New Zealand Herald, however no mention is made of it coming near
New Zealand in the long range forecast. The TVNZ news that night mentions
the cyclone over New Caledonia and indicates that the Met Office was
unsure of the path it would take. See a satellite image of the cyclone
at this stage here.
Thursday January 9 1997
 A headline at the bottom on the front page of the Herald is Second
cyclone heads to NZ packing rain, 220 km/h winds. The article says:
"If it continues its present course, Northland could begin feeling its
effects tomorrow or Saturday. Weather warnings were expected to be issued
for northern New Zealand today."
The forecast issued by the Met Service at 11:41am is as follows:
MetService forecast to midnight Friday
Issued on 09-Jan-1997 at 11:41 am
A deep depression originating from Cyclone Drena is expected to move
southwards onto the area just west of Northland and Auckland during
Friday. Over the northern half of the North Island: rain developing
in Northland tonight and spreading as far south as Taranaki and Hawkes
Bay by Friday midday with heavy falls likely. Torrential rain is possible
in some parts of Northland, Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty
tomorrow. Easterly winds are likely to rise to severe gale force for
a time in exposed places with gusts to 130 kilometres per hour. Heavy
rain is also likely to affect Gisborne and Hawkes Bay by Friday night.
The satellite picture above was taken on Thursday at about 11am shows
the cyclone to the North West of New Zealand.
Friday January 10 1997
 The New Zealand Herald's front page
headline is Cyclone Drena likely to punish unwary. In the article,
people in the path of the cyclone are warned against complacency after
Cyclone Fergus failed to live up to expectations. It reports that Aucklanders
could wake up to 21 hours of rain from 6 am and winds gusting up to
130 km/h.
During the day it became clear that the predicted torrential rain wasn't
going to eventuate, although the cyclone did bring strong winds to many
places. The winds were strong enough to uproot trees and lift up roofs
in many places.
This satellite picture (taken at 10pm on Friday) shows the centre of
the cyclone lying off the West Coast of Northland.
Saturday January 11 1997
The New Zealand Herald's morning headline reports Drena lashes north.
Another article on the cyclone tells how some campers are choosing to
stay put during the cyclone, while a third article reports on the loss
of earnings of motor camps in Northland and Coromandel, who question
the accuracy of the weather forecasting.
During the day though, the Cyclone wreaked havoc on the Coromandel.
A man died after he was electrocuted by felled power lines. A state
of emergency was declared on the peninsula where the high seas flooded
homes and washed some areas of road away on state highway 25, north
of Thames. About 30 homes were evacuated becuase of the flooding, caused
by the high seas washing over sea walls.
Sunday January 12 1997
The Sunday Star Times headline: Cyclone chaos, Sting in Drena's tail
lashes Coromandel, which reports on the devestation the cyclone
brought to the Coromandel. However the cyclone moved off the country
during the day, bringing much needed rain to the South Island and leaving
the North Island in sunshine.
This graph shows the barometric pressure during the cyclone, measured
in West Auckland. It shows the low pressure associated with a tropical
cyclone, with pressure rising again as it passes over New Zealand.
Information downloaded from http://snoopy.falkor.gen.nz/~rae/drena.html
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