El Niño causes highly variable weather events

It comes as no surprise that cyclones are forming outside of the normal tropical cyclone season, as a result of El Niño, Tonga’s Director of Meteorology, ‘Ofa Fa’anunu told Matangi Tonga this morning. As President of the World Meteorology Organisation (WMO) Region V, 'Ofa said that Severe Tropical Cyclone Lola that hit Vanuatu this week, marked an early beginning for the 2023/24 tropical cyclone season in the South West Pacific.