Results for climate

A drought alert was issued today, September 28, for Niuatoputapu by the Tonga Meteorological Services. Rainfall has been very low, recording only 1.0mm from the last week of August to September 5, which has impacted water supplies in most areas.

Southern Tonga has experienced extreme rainfall this week that was close to the record, for a 24 hour period in the current “dry season”. A La Niña Alert for October-December 2020, further increases the chances of above average rainfall across Tonga.

Tonga Meteorological Services are working with communicators to improving climate and weather reporting. Users of weather information are attending a first User's Climate Outlook Forum, over two days, 27-28 March, hosted by Tonga Met at the National Reserve Bank Building, Nuku’alofa.

Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, too many policymakers have fallen for the oil and gas industry’s rhetoric about how it can help to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Tall tales about “clean coal,” “oil pipelines to fund clean energy,” and “gas as a bridge fuel” have coaxed governments into rubber-stamping new fossil-fuel projects, even though current fossil-fuel production already threatens to push temperatures well beyond the Paris agreement’s limit of well below 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. By Lili Fuhr and Hannah McKinnon

Moving closer to the vulnerable Asia Pacific region –where more intense tropical storms are hitting the islands, the World Meteorological Organization opens its new office in Singapore today. By Linny Folau

Forecasts of drier conditions in the second half of 2017 may lead to the development of an El Nino climate cycle according to the Department of Meteorology (MET). However, although there is a 50% chance of El Nino developing, the El Nino - South Oscillation (ENSO) remains neutral.