Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasa was the strongest tropical cyclone in the South Pacific since Winston in 2016. The system was the second tropical disturbance, as well as the first named storm, of the 2020–21 South Pacific cyclone season. It is now on its way to the east coast of New Zealand, where it is expected to make landfall in the early hours of December 17. The storm is now expected to weaken to a tropical depression by the end of the week, before moving south-eastwards towards the island nation of Tonga. It has been named after Fiji’s first Prime Minister, Frank Bainimama, who has been in charge of the country’s recovery efforts.
About Cyclone Yasa in brief
Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasa was the strongest tropical cyclone in the South Pacific since Winston in 2016. The system was the second tropical disturbance, as well as the first named storm, of the 2020–21 South Pacific cyclone season. It was first noted as an area of low pressure to the north of Port Villa in Vanuatu during December 10. Over the next few days, the system gradually developed further and absorbed Tropical Depression 01F, before it was named Yasa by the FMS. In about a day, it became a Category 5 severe tropicalcyclone on the Australian scale and a few hours later, a Category 5-equivalent cyclone on Saffir-Simpson scale. Yasa maintained its intensity and became more defined on satellite imagery as it bore down on Fiji. An address was sent to the entire country from the nation’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama regarding preparations for the storm. The impacts felt from Yasa were large and wide. So far, four deaths have been confirmed. Many affected people had their access to essential things, like food and water, cut off. Fiji has been, or will be, given multiple items for relief instantly following the cyclone’s passing. Laundry items, educational, and medical supplies were among the many items placed inside a warehouse. These will be sent to Fiji to help recovery.
The cyclone is now on its way to the east coast of New Zealand, where it is expected to make landfall in the early hours of December 17. It is the fourth most intense tropical cyclones on record in the basin, beating the old record by Cyclone Zoe in 2002-03. It also became the most intense tropical cyclone worldwide in 2020. The storm is now expected to weaken to a tropical depression by the end of the week, before moving south-eastwards towards the island nation of Tonga. It has been named after Fiji’s first Prime Minister, Frank Bainimama, who has been in charge of the country’s recovery efforts since the storm’s passing on December 16. The JTWC reported that Yasa’s primary steering mechanism started to change as the system’s steering mechanism became the subtropical ridge of high pressure started to take over the steering mechanism. The weather agency has not yet confirmed if the storm will make landfall on Tonga on December 17 or 18, but has issued a high wind warning for the island of Vanuuatu. The FMS reported that the system had become equivalent to a category 2 hurricane on the hurricane scale, while the JT WC reported that it had become a category 1 hurricane in the category 1-2 hurricane scale.
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This page is based on the article Cyclone Yasa published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 20, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
