Rarotonga has received nearly twice the average rainfall since the island was hammered by heavy downpours last month.

And the rain is set to continue, at least in the coming days.

“Don’t forget to take that umbrella or raincoat with you when you are going to town or when driving in your area,” Cook Islands Meteorological Service director Arona Ngari said.

“The coming days will bring patchy and cloudy periods with some passing showers, but not as prolonged as what we have seen in the last couple of days.”

Ngari supplied January rainfall figures for Rarotonga and the Pa Enua which showed it had been a “wet” start to 2022.

The figures were largely influenced by strong winds and high seas caused by a tropical depression near Mauke which caught residents of Rarotonga and other southern group islands by surprise on January 16.

High sea surges and heavy rainfall continued to threaten the Cook Islands for the following week as the violent weather system hampered the country.

The adverse weather system damaged infrastructure such as roads and wharves, clogged up drains and even uprooted trees and lifted the roofs off of some houses.

There was also damage to fruit and vegetable crops and telecommunications outages in parts of the country has been attributed to this recent storm.

Ngari said Rarotonga received 360 millimetres of rain in January – the mean rainfall for January on Rarotonga is 232mm

Totokoitu (Matavera) received 934mm last month, Atiu had 538mm, Mauke had 621mm, while Mitiaro did not report due to a damaged rain-gauge.

Mangaia received 314mm of which 190mm alone fell on January 19.

“Understandably, these high figures are due to TD05F,” Ngari said.

Pa Enua Tokerau averaged 450mm per island, except for Nassau which recorded a daily rainfall of 1551mm on January 26, 971 mm on January 27 and 656mm on January 30, he added.  

“All in all, it has been a wet January for the Cook Islands to start the year 2022.”  

The Met Office earlier warned Cook Islands to be prepared as the nation nears the height of cyclone season.

While the country is expected to have a reduced risk of tropical cyclones, according to New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) outlook, Ngari says February has always been a volatile month for the nation.

“… February has always been a volatile month for as us in the past. With this in mind, the best we can do is prepare in the best possible way to keep safe from any similar weather conditions for the coming months,” he earlier said.