Tropical disturbance develops near Samoa and Tonga Featured
The South-West Pacific Region, showing Tonga with reference to the areas of the expected tropical system development in the next 24 – 48 hours.
25 January, 2019. Less then a week after Severe Tropical Cyclone TINO, another Tropical Depression (TD05F) has developed just east of the neighboring Samoa Islands.
Tropical Depression has a moderate chance to develop into a Tropical Cyclone in the next 48hrs is moderate.
As seen in the Satellite imagery below TD05F lies just east of Samoa.
This area is currently favourable for cyclone development.
The system is expected to intensify over the next 2days and move south to Niue or further southeast.
The potential for this system to bring damaging gale force winds to Niuatoputapu in the next 24hrs is low.
The Tonga Met Service is closely monitoring the development of this system.
Citizens and Residence are encouraged to keep following the weather forecasts in the next couple days.
It is important to note here the shift of the area of cyclogenesis from the warm waters between the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu which resulted in Severe TC “TINO” to now in the waters of the Samoa region could suggest the likely onset of an El Nino event.
Global weather models still predict a Neutral state of the El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), but the likelihood for an El Nino event to start is now a possibility.
A westerly wind burst along the equator suggests that ingredients for an El Nino event is possible.
For Tonga, this weekend the weather will be generally fine apart from cloudy periods with possible occasional rain however strong south winds are expected over Tongatapu and Eua around Sunday.
For more details and the latest on weather, please contact the Tonga Meteorological Services on 35355, 35008 or visit the Tonga Meteorological Service’s website at www.met.gov.to.
You can also visit the Tonga Meteorological Service official Facebook page for latest updates.
