Tropical Cyclone Sarai brushing Fiji with flooding rainfall, high winds

Satellite image of Tropical Cyclone Sarai passing south of Fiji Saturday night, local time. (RAMMB/CIRA)

A disturbance that AccuWeather meteorologists have been monitoring throughout the week strengthened to a tropical cyclone early Friday morning.

Sarai, the southwestern Pacific Ocean's latest named tropical cyclone, has already battered Fiji with heavy rain and strong winds and will bring more impacts into Monday.

Sarai remains a Category 2 tropical cyclone on the Fiji Intensity Scale. At this intensity, Sarai is equivalent to a strong tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane in the Atlantic or East Pacific basins.

Fiji's National Disaster Management Office announced that evacuation centers were opened in advance of the storm's arrival.

Fiji Airways has cancelled a number of flights and a major tourist travel company in the country has suspended cruise operations until the weather improves, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Tropical Cyclone Sarai passed very close to Fiji Friday night into Saturday," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said. "Heavy rainfall of 3-6 inches (75-150 mm) with an AccuWeather Local Storm Max™ of 9 inches (225 mm) will be possible into Sunday night. Wind gusts of 60-80 mph (95-130 km/h) can also occur."

The Fiji Sun reports that many roads have been closed due to fallen trees and high water. Early reports also indicate that damage to homes and crops as well as power outages.

"Sarai will track just south of Fiji as it drifts east-southeast into Monday," Nicholls said.

Conditions will be slow to improve across the country with additional downpours likely into Monday, even as the cyclone slowly departs to the east.

"Beyond Fiji, the cyclone will turn southeast into the open South Pacific and should pose no threat to Australia or New Zealand," Nicholls said.

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