Cyclone Les

Tropical Cyclone Les was a Category 2 storm in the 1997-98 Australian region cyclone season, which affected the Northern Territory of Australia in January 1998.

In January, 1998 a deep tropical low was located in the central Gulf of Carpentaria.The system continued to deepen and intensified to reach Category 2 strength. This caused hazardous conditions with gales, damaging winds and heavy rain around the Eastern Top End's coastal and island communities where it made landfall near Numbalwar. The system tracked west inland over the Top end, even when downgraded below Category 1 strength, still maintained a prolonged deep convective cyclonic structure inland right over into Western Australia. As a consequence of this, the town of Katherine and many other communities along the Katherine/Daly River catchment were devastated by heavy downpours and severe widespread flooding as the "landphoon" passed Katherine.

The intense rainfall also occurred during "king high tides" in the Timor Sea that pushed water from the lower reaches upstream, as a result, floodwater drainage was impeded.Several people were stranded on rooftops, Many residents were evacuated to cyclone shelters and 3 people sadly drowned during the incident. The damage cost was estimated to be several millions of dollars. The cyclone dumped over 380mm of rainfall in the area within a 48 hour period.