1 Feb 2012

Immediate cyclone risks for Fiji ease

10:09 am on 1 February 2012

Fiji's Weather Office says a depression off the Nadi coast is no longer expected to form into a cyclone near Fiji as it is now heading south.

Its director Alipate Waqaicelua says flooding of low-lying areas is still being a possibility because of thunderstorms and heavy rain, with warnings of winds of up to 40 knots in some places.

However, he says they are now monitoring more closely the depression forming northwest of Vanuatu as the two depression systems merge.

"This is becoming the more dominant feature as far as projections are concerned and in the next 24 to even 48 hours, they are expected to merge around the southern parts of Vanuatu or just to the southeast of Vanuatu. And when this merger happens there is no real indication that this merger will make this system a tropical cyclone, but that is yet to be seen."