Results for Natural events

The 2022 eruption of a submarine volcano in Tonga was more powerful than the largest U.S. nuclear explosion, according to a new study. A 15-megaton volcanic explosion from Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai generated a mega-tsunami with waves up to 85 meters (279 feet) high one minute after the explosion of "Blast 5", and hitting Tonga's coastlines up to 45-meters high (148 feet) at Tofua Island and waves up to 17 meters (56 feet) on Tongatapu. A new simulation in the study led by scientists at the University of Miami and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation also suggests that the eruption location relative to urban centers saved Tonga from a worse outcome.

Five newly installed tsunami warning sirens will be tested tomorrow Friday 10 May between 12:00-4:00pm around Nuku’alofa and in the Hihifo villages of Afa and Talafo'ou. The National Emergency Management Office advises that the sirens will sound like “an air-raid siren in war movies” and that the level of noise could cause “some discomfort or inconvenience.”

A tropical cyclone gale warning remains in force for Niuafo'ou, as Severe Tropical Cyclone Evan moves north of the Niuas tonight, on southwest track toward the Fiji Islands. Tropical Cyclone Advisory Number 10 for Tonga, issued from Fua'amotu, 10:00pm, 15 December 2012.

Fine weather is forecast for the whole of Tonga during the Easter weekend, and the depression that brought the humidity and rain to Tonga since March 2 is expected to clear up by Thursday, April 5, according to the National Weather Forecast Centre at Fua'amotu,

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake rattled Tonga in the early hours of Wednesday morning, November 25 but there were no immediate reports of damage from the quake which was felt with a moderate intensity in Tongatapu and Ha'apai.

An earthquake measuring 6.3, epicentred about 600km south of Tonga this afternoon, was not felt in Tongatapu.