Forecasters watching Cyclone Amos

PAcific – A new tropical cyclone has developed in the Pacific several hundred kilometres west of Samoa and about the same distance northeast of Fiji

Tropical Cyclone Amos, which was Tropical Depression 17F, was named overnight and is was moving west-southwest at eight kilometres an hour yesterday morning. A sharp turn back eastwards was expected.

New Zealand’s Metservice said Cyclone Amos was yesterday located over open waters about 280 kilometres west of Rotuma, Fiji, and 300 kilometres northwest of Futuna.

The category one cyclone had estimated winds of around 65 kilometres an hour at its centre and that was expected to increase to 95 kilometres an hour by last night.

Meteorologist at MetService, Bill Singh, said Amos would likely be a weather problem for Samoa and the northern part of Tonga over the weekend and into early next week.

He said computer models showed the cyclone would alter its northwest course and then track back in a south-easterly direction towards the weekend, passing between Tonga and Samoa early next week.

“If the cyclone moves just south of Samoa, it’s going to affect Samoa and probably northern parts of Tonga too.

“Those two, northern parts of Tonga, Samoa, as well as Wallis and Futuna, are probably in its track as the system begins to track eastwards,” he said.

At this stage cyclone-battered Fiji would be spared the worst, apart from strong winds expected to affect the northern group of Fiji’s islands.

Singh said it was too early to predict the level of intensity the forming cyclone would reach.

GDACS said the cyclone is expected to have a low humanitarian impact based on the storm strength and the affected population in its forecasted path.

- PNC sources