A Tropical Cyclone has formed before the South Pacific Cyclone Season has even officially started (Nov 1) as El Nino plays a role east of the International Dateline for early cyclone formation. The Fiji Met Service named the storm “WATI” overnight, and expects it to strengthen further today, tonight and tomorrow as it heads south to south-east.

At the time of this video (recorded 1pm Saturday NZDT, 2pm Friday Cook Islands Time) Tropical Cyclone Wati was Category 1 (out of a scale that goes up to 5) and will likely climb to at least Category 2.

Wati will move through the southern Cook Islands over Sunday local time there but latest modelling suggests Rarotonga will be mostly on the outer edges of the damaging portion of the storm.

Wati poses no threat to NZ.

Keep up to date with local authorities. Our next update will be tomorrow (Sunday NZT, Saturday Cook Islands Time).