Heavy

 

One of the factors that makes Fiji a great holiday destination is its mild climate without extremes of heat and cold. Fiji has a tropical maritime climate characterised by heavy rainfall, particularly in the eastern side of Viti Levu. The western sector falls on the dry zone of the Nausori Highlands and therefore receives less precipitation. 

Rainbow over the Pacific. Tropical showers are common in Fiji.

Even on the hottest day temperatures remain at around 31/32 deg C. Sea breezes are typical in the coastal regions of both the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Through out the year, there are trade winds over Fiji blowing from south east to north west.  

 

Overcast sky in Lautoka. 

However, some areas are flood prone, and Fiji does get severe weather from time to time. Cyclones occur about once in two years and can cause extensive damage - severe tropical cyclone Harold, for instance, happened in April 2020 and damaged nearly 2000 buildings, and destroyed a further 575 completely, mainly in the Eastern division.  

It did not just affect Fiji but the entire South Pacific region, starting off in Papua New Guinea and passing through Tonga, Vanuatu, Fiji and Solomon Islands. The damage was huge and ran into many million dollars. The cyclone season lasts from November till April, coinciding with the wet season. 

The most recent one was cyclone Cody in January 2022. Also wreaked havoc and damages were massive. 

Clear weather over Fiji in March at the end of cyclone season.

All this month I'll be writing about Aspects of Fiji, which is where I'm at the mo. And where the sum of its heavenly parts is greater than the whole!

Did you know that the weather phenomena classified as a hurricane in the Northern Hemisphere, it's called a cyclone in the South Pacific? While the hurricanes spin in a counterclockwise direction up north, in the south the direction of spin changes to clockwise due to the Coriolis effect. 

And did you know that Fiji has a heritage of the most astounding handicrafts? Wood carving, mother-of-pearl, shell, bark-cloth, baskets, masks, clubs, fishing tackle and a whole heap of other, superbly crafted articles the skills handed down from one generation to the next? Find out more here.

Now that the A-Z sign up list is finally closed, I'm happy to say I've started reading in earnest and gosh, the bad links make it heavy going! There are invalid ones and those that require me to subscribe before I comment or sign in with Facebook or some others I've never heard of. Makes me ache for the days of the helpers and hosts, old timers will know what I mean. :)  But heigh-ho, onward and upward...here next cometh I! - hope that's grammatically shipshape...or hunky dory if you prefer...

~ Thank you for reading ~

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2023