Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Tonga

Tonga’s Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre Activated for almost a week as Swarm of Extreme Tropical Weather Events Batter the country

The Fua’amotu Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre (FTCWC) of the Tonga Meteorological Services of MEIDECC was activated for a record of 6days and 16hrs from 2pm Wednesday 6th February 2019 to 6am Wednesday 13th February 2019 during a time where 4 extreme tropical weather systems (TD06F, TD07F (which became Tropical Cyclone “NEIL”), TD08F and TD10F) affected the Tonga Group. These tropical depressions and cyclone all passed to the west of the group except TC Neil which passed about 50km East of Tongatapu on its exit from Tonga. A total of 22 six hourly tropical cyclone alerts and 7 three hourly tropical cyclone warnings were issued.

“This is the longest period that the FTCWC has operated non-stop since its establishment on 11 September 2007. The previous record was 6days and 12hrs during Severe Tropical Cyclone “IAN” that affected Ha’apai in 2014. This is the first time I can recall over the 20years I have worked at the weather office that 4 tropical systems has affected Tonga one after the other. Although rare, these swarms of tropical cyclone activity are possible. They often occur during El Nino or near El Nino years and have happened before during the 2004/2005 cyclone season in the Cook Islands where they we hit by 5 tropical cyclones in the span of 3 weeks”, said the Director of the Tonga Meteorological Service Mr, Ofa Fa’anunu.

“It has been an active season so far with 2 cyclones and 5 tropical depressions affecting us. But as expected, the systems have been small ones with maximum gusts recorded only 50kts. The Pacific has been very active in terms of cloudiness and producing tropical extreme weather systems in the last 2 weeks. We expect the activity to calm down by the end of this week. We expect the last active period of the season to affect our part of the Pacific towards late March or Early April. Fa’anunu added.

The tropical cyclone (TC) activity expected in the 2018/19 Tropical Cyclone Season to affect Tonga was predicted by the Tonga Met Office to be average to above average with a 75% chance of at least 2 cyclones to occur during the cyclone season. And although historical records indicate there would be a low chance of severe tropical cyclones occurring this season, citizens were advised to expect the likelihood of at least 1 severe cyclone occurring due to climate variability brought about by global warning. “These predictions still stand”, said Fa’anunu

The most cyclones Tonga has experienced in one tropical cyclone season is 4. Tropical Cyclones Leslie, Meli, Ofa and Tia affected Tonga during the 1979/80 cyclone season. Is was a year that had tropical pacific sea surface temperature patterns similar to the current season.

ENDS

Issued by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications