A tropical cyclone alert and strong wind warning has been issued for Vava‘u and Ha‘apai as a tropical depression strengthened into Tropical Cyclone Ian, a Category 1 storm, located halfway between Vava‘u, Tonga, and Lifuka, Fiji, this morning.

Tonga's Fua’amotu Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre issued a third Tropical Cyclone Advisory at 4:30pm today, January 6, 2014.

Tropical Cyclone Ian, Category 1, was located near 18 decimal 7 South, 175 decimal 5 west or about 160km west of Vavau, or about 170km northwest of Lifuka at 1:00pm this afternoon.

“Tropical Cyclone Ian has estimated winds of 40 knots near its centre and is currently slow moving. The system is slowly intensifying.

“On this track and if the cyclone continues to intensify, it may bring damaging gale force winds over Vava‘u and Ha‘apai Groups in the next 24 to 48 hours,” stated the advisory.

Gales

A Gale Alert remains in force and Strong Winds are warned for both Vava’u and Ha’apai, with a heavy rain advisory for the whole of Tonga. Fua‘amotu advised that heavy rain with flooding and sea flooding was possible for Vava‘u and Ha‘apai.

Vava‘u and Ha‘apai waters can expect north to northwest winds 20-25 knots with gusts 30-35 knots, seas becoming very rough with heavy north-westerly swells and poor visibility in area of heavy rains.

Waters for rest of Tonga can expect northwest winds about the Niuas 15-20 knots, moderate to rough seas, elsewhere east winds 15-20 knots turning north to northeast and up to 25 knots at times, seas becoming rough.

The weather forecast for the rest of Tonga for tomorrow, Tuesday, was:

Niuas: mostly cloudy with occasional showers with some heavy falls expected.

Tongatapu and ‘Eua: Moderate to fresh north to northeast winds gusty at times, mostly cloudy with rain heavy at times.

Temperature forecast for Nuku'alofa is a maximum 30 °C today and a minimum of 24 °C tonight.

The mean sea level pressure recorded at Fua‘amotu at 1:30pm this afternoon was 1004.0 millibars.

The dropping barometer comes on the heels of King Tides in Tonga over the last week. The high tides predicated for tomorrow is 1.73 m at 12:27.