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Tropical storms (cyclones, hurricanes, or typhoons) are the most severe form of mechanical disturbance of coral reefs. In 2005, severe tropical cyclone Ingrid crossed the far northern Great Barrier Reef, a region that had not been affected by a major disturbance for several decades, and where benthic data had been collected before the cyclone crossed. This storm provided a unique opportunity to improve understanding of the extent and type of damage inflicted on inshore and offshore coral reefs along a gradient of wind speeds. Modeled maximum wind speeds ranged from 46 m s⁻¹ (equivalent to category 4) near the path to 22 m s⁻¹ (category 1) ~70 km to either side of the path. Surveys of 82 sites on 32 reefs along the wind gradient showed that the types and intensity of disturbance were well explained by local maximum wind speed, and by spatial and biotic factors. While offshore reefs had the deepest depth of …