 On 23 February 2003 , an area of convection that was situated over land for roughly a week emerged over open waters along the northern coast of Australia . The strengthening of a deep , persistent monsoon trough contributed to cyclogenesis , and a low pressure area formed . By 25 February , the low developed a banding feature in which the highest winds were located . Though the storm was located in an area of unfavorable wind shear , the Australian Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) began to issue gale warnings on the system at 0100 UTC the next day , while the low was located several hundred miles north @-@ northeast of Port Hedland . The disturbance was initially nearly stationary as it showed signs of organization due to relaxed shear , and at 0700 UTC on 27 February , the Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) designated the storm as Tropical Cyclone Graham , as it had attained 80 km / h ( 50 mph ) 10 @-@ minute maximum sustained winds . The first warning was issued on Graham later that day . 
 On 23 February 2003 , an area of convection <a href='null_relcl' title='1'><mark>that</mark></a>was situated over land for roughly a week emerged over open waters along the northern coast of Australia . The strengthening of a deep , persistent monsoon trough contributed to cyclogenesis , and a low pressure area formed . By 25 February , the low developed a banding feature in which the highest winds <a href='uninflect' title='2'><mark>were</mark></a> located . Though the storm was located in an area of unfavorable wind shear , the Australian Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) began to issue gale warnings on the system at 0100 UTC the next day , while the low was located several hundred miles north @-@ northeast of Port Hedland . The disturbance was initially nearly stationary as it showed signs of organization due to relaxed shear , and at 0700 UTC on 27 February , the Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) designated the storm as Tropical Cyclone Graham , as it <a href='been_done' title='3'><mark>had</mark></a> attained 80 km / h ( 50 mph ) 10 @-@ minute maximum sustained winds . The first warning was issued on Graham later that day . 
On 23 February 2003 , an area of convection was situated over land fa roughly a week emerged over open waters along the northern coast of Australia . da strengthening of a deep , persistent monsoon trough contributed to cyclogenesis , and a low pressure area formed . By 25 February , the low developed a banding feature in which the highest winds was located . tho tdastorm was located in an area of unfavorable wind shear , thdaustralian Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) began to issue gale warnings on thedastem at 0100 UTC the next day , while the da was located several hundred miles north @-@ northeast of Port Hedland . The ddaurbance was initially nearly stationary as it showed signs of organization due to relaxed shear , and at 0700 UTC on 27 February , the Joda Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) designated the storm as Tropical Cyclone Graham , as it done attained 80 km / h ( 50 mph ) 10 @-@ minute maximum sustained winds . The first warning was issued on Graham later that day .