Most of the Pacific Island nations have downpours and thunderstorms this week – with an area of low pressure near Samoa worth monitoring over the coming week as it drifts westwards slowly towards the Solomons and Vanuatu.

Some long range modelling shows it turning into a cyclone – but nothing is expected to develop too seriously within the next 7 days. Still, it’s very much worth monitoring with 300mm of rain coming for Samoa and nearby islands.  If a storm does form it will likely be in the second week of December.

The Northern Hemisphere is also a bit stormy, mostly around Hawaii and California and also Japan. Nothing too serious though – the usual weather for this time of year there.

We have your 7 day Pacific-wide update, plus a special 7 Day Pacific-wide rainfall map to make sense of where the wettest and driest weather will be.

*Programming Notes:

– Our final ClimateWatch update of 2023 is out Wednesday (Nov 29) covering DEC, JAN and FEB (Summer) outlook and the latest on El Nino. This mostly covers NZ and to some degree Australia.

– Our next 7 Day Australia-only update is out THURSDAY

– Apologies but we have no weather video this coming Friday (Dec 1)