The 2024–25 South Pacific cyclone season is an ongoing weather event in the South Pacific Ocean to the east of 160°E. The season officially started on November 1, 2024, and will end on April 30, 2025; however a tropical cyclone could form at any time between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, and would count towards the season total. During the season, tropical cyclones will be officially monitored by the Fiji Meteorological Service, Australian Bureau of Meteorology and New Zealand's MetService. The United States Armed Forces through the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) will also monitor the basin and issue unofficial warnings for American interests. The FMS attaches a number and an F suffix to tropical disturbances that form in or move into the basin while the JTWC designates significant tropical cyclones with a number and a P suffix. The BoM, FMS and MetService all use the Australian Tropical Cyclone Intensity Scale and estimate windspeeds with a period of approximately ten minutes, while the JTWC estimates sustained winds over a 1-minute period, which are subsequently compared to the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS).
Ahead of the season officially starting on November 1, the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) and New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), both issued a tropical cyclone outlook that discussed the upcoming season.[1][3] These outlooks took into account a variety of factors such as a developing weak to moderate La Niña event and what had happened in previous seasons such as 1983–84, 1995–96, 2000–01, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2016–17 and 2017–18.[1][3] The Southwest Pacific tropical cyclone outlook issued by New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in conjunction with MetService and various other Pacific meteorological services, predicted that six to ten tropical cyclones would occur over the South Pacific Ocean between 135°E and 120°W.[3] The outlook also predicted that three to four of these tropical cyclones would intensify further and become either a Category three, four or five severe tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale.[3] In addition to contributing towards the Southwest Pacific tropical cyclone outlook, the FMS predicted that between five and six tropical cyclones would occur within the basin, while one or two of these tropical cyclones were expected to intensify further and become either a category three, four or five severe tropical cyclone on the Australian scale.[1] Both outlooks also predicted that the majority of systems would occur to the west of the International Dateline, which as a result meant that the Solomon Islands had a normal to elevated risk of being impacted by a tropical cyclone.[1][3] It was also predicted that Vanuatu and New Caledonia had a normal chance of being impacted by a tropical cyclone while Fiji, Niue, Samoa, American Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna had a normal to reduced chance of being impacted by a tropical cyclone.[3]
On December 13, a subtropical cyclone formed near the Cook Islands and was designated 95P by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on December 17.[4]
Within the Southern Pacific, a tropical depression is judged to have reached tropical cyclone intensity should it reach winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) and it is evident that gales are occurring at least halfway around the center. Tropical depressions intensifying into a tropical cyclone between the Equator and 26°S and between 160°E - 120°W are named by the FMS; should a tropical depression intensify to the south of 26°S between 160°E and 120°W it will be named in conjunction with the FMS by MetService. Should a tropical cyclone move out of the basin and into the Australian region it will retain its original name. The names that will be used for the 2024–25 season are listed below: [5]
Pita (unused)
Rae (unused)
Seru (unused)
Tam (unused)
Urmil (unused)
Vaianu (unused)
Wati (unused)
Xavier (unused)
Yani (unused)
Zita (unused)
Arthur (unused)
Becky (unused)
Season effects
This table lists all the storms that developed in the South Pacific to the east of longitude 160°E during the 2024–25 season. It includes their intensity on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale, duration, name, landfalls, deaths, and damages. All data is taken from RSMC Nadi and/or TCWC Wellington, and all of the damage figures are in 2024 or 2025 USD.
