Extreme rainfall smashes all time March record for Fua'amotu [1]
Friday, April 29, 2022 - 17:15
Extremely high rainfall in Fua’amotu in Tongatapu during March has smashed the all time Tonga Met records for the month.
The 594mm rainfall recorded at Fua’amotu in March this year was more than three times the average rainfall of 188.2mm for the month.
The extreme rainfall at the airport was 86.5mm above the previous March rainfall record of 507.5mm in Fua’amotu recorded in 2014.
The highest one day rainfall this March was 112mm recorded at Fua’amotu on March 8.
Ha’apai and Tongatapu also recorded high rainfall in March.
Ha’apai received 420.5 mm, compared to its monthly average of 212.7mm.
Tongatapu, as a whole, received 978mm for March, compared to the monthly average of 374.4mm.
Tonga Met’s average rainfall records are based on rainfall between 1981 and 2010.
La Niña event
The latest climate update from Tonga Met released this week, said that the La Niña event in the tropical Pacific remains active, but is gradually easing.
The La Niña event increases the chance for above average rainfall for Tonga.
“Even as a Niña weakens, it may continue to influence global weather and climate, and is likely contributing to the water than average rainfall in most of Tonga.
“The 2021-2022 La Niña event has weakened slightly in the tropical Pacific over the past fortnight. Climate outlooks indicate a return to neutral El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) levels (neither La Niña nor the El Niño) late in the southern hemisphere Autumn (April to May 2022).”
The March rainfall extremes smashed records, after February recorded extremely high rainfall in Niuatoputapu, while above average rainfall recorded across the country.
Niuatoputapu recorded and 661.5mm for February (over double the January rainfall) compared to the February average of 234mm.
Temperature record
In February a national temperature record was broken.
“The highest maximum temperature was 35.6oC recorded on February 4 in Nomuka, which breaks the record of 35.5oC recorded on15 February 2016 in Niuafo’ou,” said Tonga Met. However, at the same time, the mean temperature was 27.2, only 0.1 Celcius cooler than average.
The annual wet season in Tonga started on November 1 and runs to the end of April. There are currently no tropical cyclone warnings forecast.
Rainfall is forecast to be average or above average across the country from May to July 2022.