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Tropical Cyclone Niran leaves damage despite not making landfall

By Adam Douty, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

Updated Mar 7, 2021 5:34 PM EDT

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Strong winds blew through Noumea, New Caledonia, as a level-2 hurricane alert was issued for Cyclone Niran on March 6.

Tropical Cyclone Niran brought a damaging blow to New Caledonia and Australia despite not making landfall in either country.

On Friday, local time, Niran approached New Caledonia as a Category 5 Severe Tropical Cyclone on the Australian and Fiji tropical cyclone scales. This made Niran’s strength equivalent to that of a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Severe Tropical Cyclone #Niran earlier today near New Caledonia #CycloneNiran #TCNiran pic.twitter.com/GnTAYf0S45

— Zoom Earth (@zoom_earth) March 6, 2021

Ultimately, as Niran passed near southern New Caledonia early on Saturday, it lost wind intensity to that of a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone, or equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. 

Even with weakening and not making a direct landfall, Niran dealt a significant blow to the country causing damage and sending hundreds into shelters.

In the capitol city of Noumea, three evacuation sites housed 400 people on Saturday, according to Franceinfo.

Le #cyclone #Niran laisse en #NouvelleCalédonie des dégâts matériels et des blessés légers
💻📱 https://t.co/q7h4rqNhpb pic.twitter.com/4lbHbEwZR2

— La1ère.fr (@la1ere) March 6, 2021

The site also reported that there was damage to roofs, trees and boats in addition to 69,000 without electricity. 

As of Saturday, evening there has been no reports of fatalities and just one injury.

Le #CycloneNiran a longé la #NouvelleCalédonie ce samedi. Il est passé au plus proche de Nouméa vers 17h locale. Le vent et l'absence de pluies ont notamment fait voler les poussières de minerais de la SLN dans le ciel de la capitale. Ici, une des baies de Nouméa (vidéo Facebook) pic.twitter.com/OpkO9o3rGX

— Outremers360 (@outremers360) March 6, 2021

As Niran made its closest pass to Noumea, wind gusts of 75 mph (121 km/h) was reported. And in Kone, wind gusts of 88 mph (144 km/h) was announced. 

Due to the storms relatively fast movement, flooding rainfall was not a significant issue with many locations seeing less than 3 inches (75 mm) of rain. 

Related:

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Before passing New Caledonia, Niran battered northern Queensland, Australia, early last week. Strong winds and heavy rain caused an estimated $180 million in damage to the banana crop in the region. This equates to about a third of the entire country’s crop. 

CYCLONE NIRAN: The wild winds have devastated banana crops. This farmer estimates he’s lost 70% of his crop. @10NewsFirstQLD @WINNews_CNS pic.twitter.com/2vwl4RqqHL

— Johnpaul Gonzo (@JohnpaulGonzo) March 2, 2021

Wind gusts around 62 mph (100 km/h) caused extensive damage despite the storm staying well offshore. 

Niran has since tracked into the open waters of the South Pacific Ocean and weakened below tropical cyclone intensity.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, Fubo, and Verizon Fios.

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