Cyclone Katrina impacted parts of Queensland, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands, killing two people and causing $8.66 million (1998 USD) in damages.

[1] On 1 January, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) started to monitor a tropical low that had developed within the monsoon trough about 630 km (390 mi) to the east-northeast of Cairns in Queensland, Australia.

[4][5][6] Early on 3 January, the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) initiated advisories on the system and designated it as Tropical Cyclone 12P.

[7] Susan's outflow also caused a moderate amount of vertical wind shear over Katrina, which helped to inhibit development of the system and weakened it slightly.

[6][1] Later that day, the FMS reported that the system had peaked as a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone on the Australian region scale, with 10-minute sustained wind speeds of 150 km/h (90 mph).

On January 15, the storm moved south-southwestward, where it reached Category 2-equivalent strength on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale, with a central barometric pressure of 940 millibars (28 inHg).

[10][11] Over the next couple of days, the system moved westwards over the Top End under the influence of a subtropical ridge of high pressure and emerged into the Indian Ocean to the north of Western Australia's Kimberley region.

As Victor accelerated towards a west-southwest direction on the edge of a subtropical high, it crossed the 90th meridian east early on 16 February, subsequently being briefly renamed by Mauritius as Tropical Cyclone Cindy.

[12] Later that day, the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre in Réunion (RSMC La Reunion) downgraded Cindy to a tropical disturbance.

[12] Cindy continued to lose its convection and vorticity until 19 February, when RSMC La Reunion reported that the cyclone dissipated, after having recurved to the south towards a polar trough.

[6][16] As the system affected the archipelago, Katrina brought heavy rainfall, high seas and waves of about 10 m (33 ft) to parts of Guadalcanal, Makira-Ulawa, Malaita, Rennell and Bellona provinces.

[17] As a result of the high waves, twenty families had to abandon the village of Kopiu on the island of Guadalcanal and move to a Seventh Day Adventist school.

[23] During 8–9 January, while the system was located within the South Pacific basin, Katrina posed a threat to Vanuatu which had just been affected by Cyclone Susan a couple of days earlier.