Cyclone Declaration information

When does a cyclone begin and end?

Australia’s weather agency, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), will observe when a cyclone begins, ends, and re-intensifies.

The Cyclone Reinsurance Pool (cyclone pool) will cover claims for cyclone and cyclone-related flood damage arising during a cyclone event, which lasts from the time a cyclone begins until 48 hours after the cyclone ends.

When is the cyclone pool involved in an event? 

If the BoM observes that a cyclone exists, and is likely to affect any part of Australia, it must notify ARPC regarding the cyclone within 24 hours of first making this observation.

ARPC must declare the start of a cyclone event within 24 hours of receiving BoM’s notification.

The declaration must state when a cyclone begins based on the BoM's notification, and must be published on ARPC’s website as soon as practicable, via a Notifiable Instrument, within 24 hours from receiving the notification from the BoM and publish the declaration on the ARPC website. The Notifiable Instrument will be subsequently registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.

ARPC must make a subsequent declaration to note the end of a cyclone event, relying on the BoM’s notification that the cyclone has ended. The cyclone event, and with it the claims period, will conclude 48 hours after the cyclone ends.

If the cyclone was declared to have ended, but then, based on the BoM’s notification, the cyclone re-intensifies, ARPC must declare a new cyclone event, for the same named cyclone (with a new event code for the purposes of the cyclone pool).

What is a cyclone? 

A cyclone is defined in the Terrorism and Cyclone Insurance Regulations 2003 as a non-frontal low-pressure system, of synoptic scale, that:

1. has developed over warm waters and
2. has organised convection and
3. has a maximum mean wind speed of 34 knots or greater that:
   1. extends more than halfway around near the centre of the system; and
   2. has persisted for at least 6 hours.

A cyclone will end when:

1. the conditions above are not met, and 
2. in the opinion of the BoM, the likelihood that the system will intensify to such an extent as to again satisfy the conditions at some time within 48 hours after the downgrade time is less than the likelihood that it will not.

The current cyclone season's declarations are recorded in the blue box below titled Declarations. 

For previous cyclone seasons' declarations, please see the Archived Declarations page.