Cyclone Winston was one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere and the strongest to make landfall in Fiji. Actions to take: Monitor local media and weather forecasts. [30][31] The FMS subsequently reported that Hola had become a Category 4 severe tropical cyclone and predicted that Hola would peak as a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone.[32]. It was also considered unlikely that the Northern Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Kiribati and the Pitcairn Islands would be affected by a tropical cyclone. Cyclone Disaster Dashboard. [3] The Southern Cook Islands, American Samoa, Samoa, Niue, Tokelau, Tuvalu, as well as Wallis and Futuna were thought to have a below average chance of being impacted. 7 systems formed on this month. Event: The Fiji Meteorological Service advises that Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasa is Approaching Fiji. They asked several experts about their opinion, James Kossin from NOAA “There’s no question that the storms are stronger than they were 30 years ago.” Climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, “The only caveat being that the increase might be exaggerated somewhat because of undercounting early storms.” Meteorologist Philip Klotzbach noted, “What’s happening with hurricanes — the frequency, the duration, and the energy — is probably a combination of factors caused by both nature and man, a mish-mosh of everything.”[10] Kerry Emanuel who studies hurricanes, told the BBC, "The warming of the climate has increased the underlying probabilities of very heavy rain events like happened in Harvey and very high category hurricanes like Irma. Yasa is now severely diminished in strength as it heads toward Fiji’s neighbor to the east, Tonga. [49] The alert was subsequently cancelled during the next day, after the system's low level circulation center became ragged, while atmospheric convection was displaced to the east of the circulation center. On the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Don, Tropical Storm Emily (2017), and a weak depression formed. Location: Fiji Islands Event: The Fiji Meteorological Service advises that Tropical Cyclone Mona is approaching Fiji and may strengthen to a category 2 cyclone by Saturday. I have a daughter that lives outside Sydney that tells me that Fiji is all over local television in Australia. Scientists pointed out that the increase of CO2 emissions contributes to warmer ocean waters and more moist air for rain. [3] They also predicted that the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu had a near normal to normal risk of being impacted by one or more tropical cyclones. According to the latest ADRA Fiji Situation Report, Cyclone Yasa caused significant destruction to infrastructure, buildings, and agriculture in Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second-largest island. Western Mexico, Baja California Peninsula, Madagascar, Réunion, Mauritius, Mozambique. Crising also formed and affected Philippines in its lifespan. 88 tropical cyclones had been named by either a Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) or a Tropical Cyclone Warning Center (TCWC). [14] On 10 February, Gita rapidly intensified to a category 3 severe tropical cyclone on the Australian scale[15] while traversing anomalously warm sea surface temperatures of between 28–29 °C (82–84 °F). This table lists all the storms that developed in the South Pacific to the east of longitude 160°E during the 2017–18 season. It never strengthened due to the wind shear. 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