{"id":632998,"date":"2026-10-17T01:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632998\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T01:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:52:16","slug":"tropical-depression-develops-into-a-cyclone-in-cook-islands-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632998\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical depression develops into a cyclone in Cook Islands waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tropical depression that’s been brewing in Cook Islands waters has developed into a tropical cyclone.<\/p>\n

New Zealand MetService said the category one system, named Tropical Cyclone Wati, is moving in a south-easterly direction.<\/p>\n

This is the first cyclone in the region, arriving two weeks before the official start of the South Pacific cyclone season.<\/p>\n

The Cook Islands Meteorological Service Director Maara Vaiimene had earlier told RNZ Pacific that the el nino weather phase over the region is contributing to the unusually early development of a possible tropical cyclone.<\/p>\n

The Cook Islands is currently in an el nino climate situation.<\/p>\n

The Cook Islands Meteorological Service is advising the public that the weather situation<\/a> is developing and people across the Cook Islands should stay informed and prepared.<\/p>\n

It said the Emergency Cook Islands team has a response guideline for what people need to do in the event that the tropical depression becomes a tropical cyclone.<\/p>\n

What should you do now<\/p>\n

Secure loose items around your home and property.Check your emergency supplies and household plans.Fishermen, boat operators and inter-island vessels should closely monitor marine forecasts and warnings and avoid going to sea if conditions are unsafe.Keep checking official CIMS updates and follow advice from the relevant authorities.<\/p>\n

Earth Sciences New Zealand is predicting elevated cyclone activity<\/a> for parts of the Pacific in the coming cyclone season.<\/p>\n

Location of Wati<\/p>\n

At 8am today local time, Tropical Cyclone Wati was located approximately 125 km north of Suwarrow. The system has maximum sustained winds of 74 km\/h near its centre, with gusts reaching 102 km\/h.<\/p>\n

Tropical Cyclone Wati is moving southeast at around 14 km\/h.<\/p>\n

On its forecast track, Tropical Cyclone Wati is expected to pass approximately 50km east of Suwarrow around 8pm tonight local time, before moving to about 180 km south-southeast of Suwarrow by 10am tomorrow local time, Saturday 17 October.<\/p>\n

Weather conditions<\/p>\n

For Suwarrow, people there can expect damaging gale-force winds of 65km\/h with gusts up to 93km\/h.<\/p>\n

Periods of heavy rain, with squally thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

High seas and damaging heavy swells.<\/p>\n

Risk of coastal inundation during high tides.<\/p>\n

For the rest of Pa Enua Tokerau, fresh to strong winds of to 55km\/h with gusts to 74km\/h.<\/p>\n

Periods of rain, heavy at times, with squally thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

Rough to very rough seas with moderate to heavy swells.<\/p>\n

Palmerston, Aitutaki and nearby islands, strong east to southeast winds of 37 to 46km\/h with gusts to of 64km\/h.<\/p>\n

Winds may strengthen to damaging gale-force of 64km\/h and gusting to 92km\/h.<\/p>\n

Rain and thunderstorms developing and becoming frequent and heavy.<\/p>\n

Seas will become rough to very rough, becoming very rough to high seas from later tomorrow and damaging heavy swells.<\/p>\n

And for the rest of Pa Enua Tonga<\/p>\n

Moderate to fresh east to southeast winds, becoming strong and gusty during the weekend.<\/p>\n

Cloudy periods with occasional showers, becoming frequent and heavy at times.<\/p>\n

Seas becoming rough, with moderate to heavy swells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tropical depression that’s been brewing in Cook Islands waters has developed into a tropical cyclone. New Zealand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-632998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632998","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=632998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}