Official weather authorities say there is a “high” chance a tropical low will become a cyclone this weekend. Both the NZ MetService and Fiji Met Service say the tropical disturbance has a high chance of tropical cyclone formation this weekend.

The tropical disturbance is currently over the Northern Cook Islands and this Friday (Cooks time) and weekend it will strengthen as it tracks south-east directly towards the Southern Cooks. Rarotonga looks to be on the edge of it – but islands to the north-east look most exposed to heavy rain, damaging wind gusts and heavy seas.

Latest forecast data shows a potential Category 2 cyclone (out of a scale of 5). We break down the tracking, rainfall and wind and will have further updates either today or this weekend should there by further changes.

TIME ZONES
– Cook Islands is 23 hours behind NZ time (or add one hour and take away a day to convert from the NZ time stamp to Cooks time).