El Nino Alert, drought watch in place for Tonga [1]
Monday, November 12, 2018 - 18:33
An El Nino Alert and drought watch is in place for Tonga, with below average rainfall predicted for most of the country between November 2018 – January 2019 and continuing between February – April 2019 (table 1).
According to Tonga Meteorology Services, there is an 80% chance of El Nino forming between November 2018 and January 2019 due to warmer sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean during October.
The Tropical cyclone season, or wet season, officially started on 1 November and will continue until the end of April 2019. However, with the El Nino like conditions evolving in the Pacific ocean, it may affect Tonga’s rainfall pattern during the coming months, which may result in some water shortage throughout the country during this time especially Tongatapu and Ha’apai which is now experiencing El Nino like conditions.
Tonga Met urges residents to use water wisely and collect as much water as possible when it rains. Residents are urged to seek advice from relevant authorities of sensitive sectors, e.g. Agriculture, Water, Health and the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO) on the best practices to minimize the effects of natural disasters. It is important to know the impact of El Niño and receiving less rainfall than usual which affects our islands.
Rainfall observation for the last three months (table below), show above average rainfall in the Niuas, and in October, Vava’u and Ha’apai. Tongatapu however experienced drier conditions.
The average temperature in October was 25.5°C which was 1.0°C warmer than average. The highest maximum temperature was 32.9°C on 25 October in Niuafo’ou and the lowest minimum temperature was 17.0°C in Fua’amotu on 20 October.