What is cyclone Tracy?
Cyclone Tracy was a category 4 cyclone which began as a tropical storm in the Arafura Sea. It hit Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, in the early hours of Christmas Day 1974. The winds were so strong that they blew away the instruments at the airport, suggesting that the cyclone was actually category 5 when it hit. It wiped out about 70% of the town, which has since been rebuilt to be as cyclone-proof as it possibly can.