The second Tropical Cyclone in the Pacific in three days has been named - and forecasters are breathing a sigh of relief both will pass New Zealand by.
The Fiji MetService today named Tropical Cyclone Kevin, a category one storm to the northwest of Vanuatu.
It follows the naming of Tropical Cyclone Judy on Monday, which has since developed into a category four storm and left trees strewn across properties in Vanuatu.
New Zealand MetService meteorologist Amy Rossiter told the Herald both cyclones would track “well to the north” of the country.
Neither Judy nor Kevin posed a significant risk to the country - a relief following the devastation of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle a little over two weeks ago, Rossiter said.
“The North Island is extremely saturated after the last couple of weather events,” she said.
“I know there will be a lot of anxious and nervous people when they see these new storms, it is quite a relief these two will pass by.”
“The weather has become quite dramatic, and it is unsafe to be outside. It’s very noisy and very dangerous,” McGarry said.
“A red alert [was issued and] is the highest level of warning that our meteorological service offers. It’s basically an instruction, an order, to go home and seek shelter.”
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Winds of 165km/h, gusting to 230km/h, were forecast to affect an area 30 nautical miles from Judy’s centre and would continue to affect Tafea province on Thursday.
Port Vila’s water supply - which was cut off as the storm passed over - has since been restored, McGarry said.
“There’s going to be a very large clean-up required. There are branches and leaves strewn everywhere,” he said.
New Zealand MetService said Tropical Cyclone Kevin would bring more heavy rain, gales and large waves to parts of Vanuatu.
Meanwhile, Judy was expected to track east and weaken as it moved out of the tropics tomorrow.
Kevin would move from the topics on Sunday and follow a similar path to Judy - “well away from New Zealand”, MetService said.
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