TC Victor turns away from Tongatapu [1]
Sunday, January 24, 2016 - 12:45
Tongatapu and the capital Nuku’alofa escaped Tropical Cyclone Victor, which passed 115 km south of ‘Eua at 11:00pm Friday night.
A Tropical Cyclone Warning for southern Tonga was cancelled at 1:40am on Saturday by the Fua’amotu Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre.
They reported that the highest average wind speed recorded at Fua’amotu was only 16 knots, with gusts up to 26 knots during Friday night.
The fresh winds experienced were much lower than the damaging gales forecasted.
Humid weather in Tonga has followed the weakening cyclone, which has moved away to the west-southwest.
The mean sea level pressure recorded at Fua'amotu Airport at 06:00am Sunday Janaury 24 was 1005.7 millibars and the relative humidity was 98%.
However, a strong wind warning remains in force for coastal waters in Tongatapu, ‘Eua, Ha’apai and Vava’u, with rough to very rough seas.