The Western Division and parts of Northern Division last month suffered their wettest January in over a century with some sites receiving three to four times their normal rainfall for the month.
The month ended up with 75 percent of the daily climate reporting sites receiving at least twice their normal rainfall and almost the whole country receiving more than one and a half times its usual January rainfall.
The only exception was the extreme southern part of Lau which managed to receive average rainfall.
Most of the extreme rainfall occurred in the period from 7 to 14 January though parts of Vanua Levu continued to receive heavy falls until 17 January. Unfortunately the daily climate reporting sites at Rarawai Mill, Ba and Nacocolevu, Sigatoka were flooded, resulting is loss of valuable data.
From the sites that functioned throughout the month, the wettest place was Nabouwalu in Vanua Levu which received a total of 1383mm of rainfall that is nearly four and a half times its normal January rainfall. Other sites that received above 1000mm of rainfall were: Monasavu-1545mm (253% of normal), Vatukoula- 1528mm (352% of normal), Lautoka- 1291mm (348% of normal), Penang Mill- 1228mm (310% of normal), Nadi Airport - 1181mm (344% of normal) and Dobuilevu- 1175mm (297% of normal). From the extensive flooding reported, Ba, Sigatoka and other parts of Western Division are certain to have received above 1000mm of rainfall.
Fourteen monthly totals and seven daily (24-hr) rainfall records were broken - refer enclosed Table.
The highest one-day fall was 386mm at Monasavu followed by 378mm at Nabouwalu and 360mm at Dobuilevu. The enormous rainfall was due to a number of intense weather systems that affected the Fiji region during the month.
This included an active Monsoonal trough and its combination with an enhanced South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ), two Tropical Depressions and Tropical Cyclone (TC) Hettie which indirectly brought heavy rainfall to the Central Division towards end of the month.
The hovering of the Monsoonal trough and SPCZ over Fiji from 6 to 14 January resulted in the worst flooding in Northwestern Viti Levu since 1931. 12 human lives were lost in the latest event compared to more than 200 human lives lost in the 1931 flood which affected whole Viti Levu.
The January 2009 Flood is the worst natural disaster to economically affect Fiji since the Drought of 1998 when the loss exceeded $F160 million.
Contact
Director of Meteorology on 6724888 Ext 5001/5002 or 9905375
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No:0349