![\"Heavy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/22071391-scaled.jpg\")
\n\t\tHeavy swells battered Rarotonga\u2019s southern coast in 2022, causing some of the most destructive weather the island has ever seen. The picture shows debris washed onto the road in ArorangI. Photo: SIAN SOLOMON\/22071391<\/p>\n
\n\t\tHeavy swells battered Rarotonga\u2019s southern coast in 2022, causing some of the most destructive weather the island has ever seen. The picture shows debris washed onto the road in ArorangI. Photo: SIAN SOLOMON\/22071391<\/p>\n
A heavy swell and coastal inundation warning has been issued for the Cook Islands as a powerful weather system that battered New Zealand\u2019s capital this week continues to move across the Pacific, bringing the threat of dangerous seas and coastal flooding to parts of the country.<\/p>\n
The Cook Islands Meteorological Service yesterday upgraded its earlier heavy swell advisory to a warning after forecast wave heights exceeded key thresholds.<\/p>\n
An intense system southeast of New Zealand is expected to generate swells of four to five metres across the Cook Islands, with impacts forecast for the Southern Group from today and the Northern Group from Thursday.<\/p>\n
The warning comes after Wellington was placed under a local state of emergency earlier this week as giant swells and gale-force winds pounded the city\u2019s southern coastline, forcing evacuations and road closures.<\/p>\n
Waves of up to 11 metres were recorded off parts of the New Zealand coast as authorities warned of risks to life and property.<\/p>\n
Cook Islands Meteorological Service acting director Nathan Tisam said the warning upgrade was triggered by forecast conditions meeting the service\u2019s established thresholds.<\/p>\n
Tisam said the warnings are based on the coastal inundation and swell framework, whereby meeting certain thresholds prompts them to issue these warnings.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we had a few days of lead time, in order to forecast or to assist the wave that’s coming, we issue out the watch first\u2014a watch to prepare the public for something that’s coming on its way.\u201d
He said it’s now been upgraded to a warning – based on the threshold of above four metres, and with swell periods of 17 seconds and above.<\/p>\n
The Met Office warning advises swells of four to five metres, winds of 15 to 20 knots, moderate to rough seas and possible coastal flooding in vulnerable low-lying areas, particularly during high tide.<\/p>\n
Tisam stressed that while the Met Office provides weather information and forecasts, public safety responses fall under Emergency Management Cook Islands (EMCI).<\/p>\n
He said forecast models indicate the strongest impacts will be felt around the Southern Group today before the system tracks northeast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is coming from New Zealand, it’s propagating throughout the whole of the Pacific,\u201d Tisam said.<\/p>\n
Wave heights are expected to gradually ease from around four metres to between two and 3.8 metres in the coming days.<\/p>\n
However, northern islands could face prolonged impacts of around four days.<\/p>\n
Emergency Management Cook Islands has also issued an advisory specifically highlighting the southern coast of Rarotonga from Kavera to Titikaveka, along with vulnerable low-lying coastal areas in the Pa Enua.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Titikaveka Puna Disaster Risk Management team has urged residents to monitor official updates and prepare vulnerable beachfront and low-lying properties for possible flooding.<\/p>\n
The local Emergency Operations Centre team will monitor conditions across the district over the next three days, with particular concern for coastal areas stretching from Muri and Tikioki through to Vaimaanga, Rutaki, Aroa and Kavera. Authorities are advising the public to avoid lagoon activities, stay away from exposed coastal areas and remain alert for further updates as the swell event unfolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Heavy swells battered Rarotonga\u2019s southern coast in 2022, causing some of the most destructive weather the island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-471342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}