The system rapidly intensified before making landfall on New Caledonia as a Category 2 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale in the early morning hours of 20 February.

On 9 February 1999, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) started to monitor a tropical low, that had developed within the monsoon trough about 225 km (140 mi) to the northeast of Cairns, in Queensland, Australia.

[2][3] As a result, an area of strong ridging developed to the south of the system, while the trade winds rapidly extended northwards to the monsoon trough.

[5][6] As it was named the system was located about 310 km (195 mi) to the east of the northern Queensland coast, and had started to move towards the southwest under the influence of the subtropical ridge of high pressure.

[6][8][9] The BoM subsequently estimated that the system had peak 10-minute sustained wind speeds of 130 km/h (80 mph) when it made landfall on the Queensland coast, at around 1300 UTC (2300 EST) on 11 February just to the north of Cow Bay near the mouth of the Daintree River.

[1] Over the next 24 hours the JTWC continued to track Rona as a tropical cyclone as it moved through the Great Dividing Range.

[10][11] During 16 February, the system's low to mid-level circulation moved off Queensland's east coast, and tracked eastwards across the Coral Sea within the monsoon trough to the south of the subtropical ridge of high pressure.

[11][12][13] Early on February 17, the JTWC initiated advisories on the system and designated it as Tropical Cyclone 22P, while it was located about 550 km (340 mi) to the east-northeast of Rockhampton, Australia.

[14] Frank made landfall near the northern tip of New Caledonia at peak intensity with winds of 145 km/h (90 mph) at 0000 UTC on 20 February.

During the morning of 21 February, RSMC Nadi passed warning responsibility to Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited (TCWC Wellington) as the cyclone had moved south of 25°S.

[17] Roughly 18 hours later, Frank merged with a trough to form an intense extratropical cyclone,[14] which eventually made landfall on the South Island of New Zealand near Westport.

[35] On February 12, a disaster area was declared for Cairns and Innisfail due to the severity of damage caused by the storm.

[39] Several townships within the north-western parts of the archipelago suffered from power outages, disruption to water supply and telecommunications, while some landslides were reported on coastal roads.

The men were subsequently found by the Orion during the next day, while located about 547 km (340 mi) to the southwest of Nouméa just outside the search zone.