We rely on readers like you to uphold a free press.The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website:This content is currently not available in your region.Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. He spent many years at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and is the author of “The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change” and “Weather on the Air: A History of Broadcast Meteorology.”.We recognize our responsibility to use data and technology for good. Misa Funaki of the Fiji Meteorological Service said the storm was tracking southeast and was expected to cause more damage.

Harold is the region's most powerful storm since 2018 and could yet grow stronger than Pam and Winston, the Southern Hemisphere's biggest storm on record, which devastated Fiji in 2016. However, intense rainbands on the fringe of the eyewall swept across southern Vita Levu, and outer rainbands cascaded across Fiji’s other major island, Vanua Levu, just northeast of Vita Levu.Huge tidal waves were reported in the Yasawa Islands northwest of Vita Levu, Misa Funaki (Fiji Meteorological Service),Fiji endured the deadliest storm in its history—and the costliest cyclone on record in the South Pacific—when Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston,Tonga experienced its most powerful storm in living memory on February 11, 2018, when the northern eyewall of Category 4.Relief officials provided some of the first assessments of the toll wrought by Harold in northern Vanuatu, even as communications with the island nation remained sketchy. At 0Z Wednesday, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.Radar loops and the JTWC’s 0Z and 3Z positions for Harold confirm that the storm made a brief landfall on Kadavu, passing quickly over the island’s rugged but narrow landmass.Harold had weakened markedly after passing through the northern islands of Vanuatu, when it briefly reached Category 5 strength. The center of Harold’s eye passed over the island between 0100Z and 0130Z Wednesday (1:00 and 130 p.m. Wednesday local time). Cyclone Harold, its strength ranked in the highest category of five, passed over Fiji’s south at about midday, leveling homes and snapping communications links in the archipelago, which has adopted curbs on movement to rein in the virus. April 8, 2020, 3:54 AM EDT Above: Residents of Nasoata, Fiji, evacuate to a primary school in Natabua ahead of Tropical Cyclone Harold. Lisa Faerua, the Oxfam director for Vanuatu.Flights over the northern islands pummeled by Harold revealed destroyed crops, downed coconut trees, and unroofed buildings, ABC reported.The last system this strong to affect any part of Vanuatu—and the strongest on record for the island nation—was.Harold’s path took it across some northern islands that were less hard hit by Pam, while the cyclone stayed well north of populous Efate Island.Bob Henson is a meteorologist and writer at weather.com, where he co-produces the Category 6 news site at Weather Underground.

Cyclone Harold: First Fatality Recorded, A 66-Year-Old Man On Kadavu A 66-year-old man has been confirmed as the first fatality case from severe Tropical Cyclone Harold on … All rights reserved.Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you.Cyclone Harold Slams Into Fiji As Category 5 Storm.The powerful storm leveled homes and snapping communications links in the archipelago.Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter.Today is National Voter Registration Day!We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote.

Tropical Cyclone Harold brought heavy rains and hurricane-force winds to Vanuatu and was moving toward Fiji when NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite provided forecasters with an image of the storm. Tropical Cyclone Harold slams Fiji Photo: Fiji Government At 9am today local time, Harold - now a Category 4 storm - was just west of the main island Viti Levu. As Vanuatu and Fiji emerge from a trail of destruction left by Tropical Cyclone Harold, Tonga is bracing for damage as the category five storm passes the island kingdom. However, JTWC noted that Harold was once again reorganizing on Wednesday local time, with a new pinhole eye developing on microwave imagery.As predicted, the dangerous left-hand side of Harold’s eyewall passed just south of Vita Levu, Fiji’s largest and most populous island. A reintensifying Tropical Cyclone Harold continued its rampage through the South Pacific with a direct hit on the southern Fiji island of Kadavu at Category 4 strength. Damaging winds, hazardous storm surge and …