Cyclone Ului continues to threaten Solomon Islands
Updated
While Fiji recovers from Cyclone Tomas, outlying islands in the Solomon Islands are also picking up the pieces after Cyclone Ului. Cyclone Ului is still a category four storm and is now in the Coral Sea.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: David Hirasia, Met Service Acting Director
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COUTTS: Now I’m sitting with David in Solomon Islands Meteorological Bureau this morning and David we’re looking at some pretty impressive screens at the moment; one of Ului and the other in the background there you’ve got Tomas. But let’s start with Ului at the moment, where is it?
HIRASIA: Yeah Ului is about 204 nautical miles southwest of Rennell and Bellona Islands, and it’s heading down into the Coral Seas. The speed is quite slow, it’s about two knots moving southwest into the Coral Seas.
COUTTS: And what category is it at the moment?
HIRASIA: It’s still category four and the central pressure is about 950 hectopascals.
COUTTS: And it’s heading towards Australia?
HIRASIA: All the models are predicting that it will be within the Queensland area around the weekend, probably Sunday to Monday.
COUTTS: And Rennell and Bellona have experienced the worst of Ului?
HIRASIA: That’s right, we’ve issued a hurricane and storm wind warnings about Saturday and Sunday for Rennell and Bellona province.
COUTTS: And are the warnings still in place?
HIRASIA: Now we’ve downgraded all the warnings to cyclone watch because of the current track that Ului is taking, so we still expect strong winds around Rennell and Bellona Islands for the next day or the following day. So we’re still issuing, especially for the sea, we still expect rough seas around that area and strong winds at certain times.
COUTTS: So no surfing on Rennell and Bellona at the moment?
HIRASIA: No the weather at the moment is not good for surfing.
COUTTS: We’re in Honiara obviously, Solomon Islands, and it’s hot and sticky already this early in the morning, is the way the weather’s going to be for a while?
HIRASIA: Yeah that’s correct, we still expect strong winds around most of the islands and heavy rain at times, especially for the big islands because of the topography, and so yeah we still should expect similar sort of weather for the next few days.
COUTTS: Now as I mentioned we’re sitting around a fairly impressive array of screens, and over in the background there’s a colourful Tomas. What’s Cyclone Tomas doing at the moment?
HIRASIA: Well Tomas is about north of New Zealand and it’s heading probably east of New Zealand, but it might dissipate because of the sea surface temperature at that latitude, and so very soon it should dissipate.
COUTTS: So Ului and Tomas probably won’t cause any more grief in the Pacific then?
HIRASIA: That’s correct, well Ului is now into the Coral Seas and I would say it’s probably following the forecasted track and hopefully it should be into the Coral Seas or Saturday or Sunday it should be very close to Australia. Although tomorrow they’re still predicting that it should still be tropical cyclone when it hits the Queensland area, but it’s still too early to tell what category or what the actual location will be.
COUTTS: Now David when I was here yesterday setting up this very early morning appointment this morning with you, thank you very much, the phone was ringing non-stop, and I thought oh look it’s other radio stations, SIBC, One-TV, but it was actually concerned members of the public ringing regularly to your offices here to find out what the cyclones are doing. So you’ve been getting a lot of concerned callers?
HIRASIA: That’s correct, the phones have been hot over the week and we have a toll free number so people can call anywhere from the Solomons. So we’re just updating them on the position of the cyclone and the likely weather that they should expect associated with cyclone Ului.
COUTTS: Now because there’s cyclones in the area your staff here at the bureau work 24/7, how much longer do you think that those hours will be maintained here?
HIRASIA: We’re still maintaining 24 hours weather watch. We’re hoping that by Friday we should cut down on our operations, but even if we cut down on what we’re doing at the forecasting office, our offices from the Henderson met office will still man the office 24 hours. So after it went southwest of Rennell.
COUTTS: David Hirasia who’s here, who’s the acting director of the Solomon Islands Meteorological Service thank you very much for getting up so early to come and do this interview in your office, thank you.
HIRASIA: You’re welcome.
COUTTS: This is Geraldine Coutts in Solomon Islands Bureau of Meteorology for Pacific Beat.
