Abstract Tuvalu's Weather and Climate
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lli. TUVALU'S WEATHER AND CLIMATE: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY LA. Rodgers Department of Geology University of Auckland and Carol Cantrell Library Australian Museum ABSTRACT Published, systematic, meteorological data for the nine atolls of Tuvalu, central Pacific, are both incomplete and widely scattered through the literature. In part this is a result of the administrative responsibility for the stations having changed over the years. Over one hundred annotated references spanning 1829 to the present are cited which contain data or oth~r material relevant to Tuvalu's weather and climate. Included are several recent su mm aries of the general environment of the atolls as well as accounts of the effects and aftermath of hurrica nes. INTRODUCTION Tuvalu consists of a chain of nine small islands and atolls scattered o 0 over some 600 km along a roughly NNW-SSE bearing between 5 and 10.5 S o 0 latitude and 176 and 179.5 E longitude. Apart from the similar island chain of Kiribati to the nort h and east, the nearest land is Rotuma 400km to the SW with the main islands of Fiji a further 200 km south. The Phoenix and Tokelau Groups are about 700 km east while t he Santa Cruz islands are the first landfall 1500 km west. From north to south the islands are Nanumea, Niutao, Nanumanga, Nui, Vaitupu, Nukefetau, Funafuti, Nukuiaelae, Niulakita. S. Pac. J. Nat. Sci., 1987, Vol. 9 111-142 112. The position of Tuvalu's islands due so u th of the equator and o immediately west of the 180 meridian, in an otherwise empty expanse of 2 over 2,000,000 km of the central Pacific, makes them important meteorological stations. In particular, they straddle part of a broad band in which many tropical cyclones have their origin (Hutchings 1953; Gabites 1960). Systematic meteorological records are available for the group from 1931. While copies of this information for some of the islands stations, over some of the elapsed period since then, may be obtained from meteorological authorities in the United Kingdom, Fij i and New Zealand, published data is widely dispersed and somewhat incomplete. In part this is a result of administrative responsibility for the station~ in Tuvalu/Ellice Isla nds having changed over the years. However, it is also apparent that each authority has not always published the same data from the stations in the same reference source during the period each has exercised control. Gaps appear in the published record even in the last fifteen years. As meteorological information is of interest to a wide range of Pacific researchers other than meteorologists, the following compilation of published sources has been brought together and anno tations included to indicate what material may be obtained from each reference. Neither compiler is a meteorologist. The information was acquired in the course of making other studies connected with Tuvalu. No claims are made for completeness and wh~le meteorological authorities in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia provided invaluable advice and information, the authors bear all responsibility for any errors which exist. The first published records from the group are those of Duperry (1829) while those given by Russell (1904) for two months of 1896 are the earliest data covering a protracted period. The earliest regular records held by the National Meteorological Archives at Bracknell, Berkshire, are for Vaitupu for 1931 until June 1932 and may be found in summarised form in the short-lived Blue Book of the Colony (Great 113. Britain 19xxb). It is nQt clear under what authority these observations were made but they were received by >the Colonial Office via the Harbour-master at Suva, who presumably acted for the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, in his capacity as Government Meteorologist of Fiji. The station was transferred from Vaitupu to Funafuti on 16 June 1932. Records from this time on are available in a number of different forms. In 1941 the Suva Harbour - master handed over his meteorological responsibilities to a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force who had been seconded by the New Zealand Government to reorganise the service in both Fiji and e l sewhere in the Western Pacific. The Ellice Islands, as Tuvalu was then named, were of course in the front line of the Pacific War, the Japanese having captured Kiribati as far south as Apemana, just north of the equator . The New Zealand Meteorological Service took over responsibility for the stations in the group after the war. A letter from the Service notes that they have on record data as fol l ows: rainfall temperature Funafuti 1941 on 1947 on Niulakita 1945 on 1957 on Nui 1941 on 1947 on Nanumea 1947 on 1983 on However, not all these data are readily available in the published literature whi l e d~ta from other atolls have appeared in recent years. No analysis of what is available and whe re is attempted here. Users of this bibliographic compilation will become aware of a hiatus in published detailed information between cessation of the An nual Meteoro logical Summary by the New Zealand Meteorological Service (1947-71) i n 1971 and commencement of publication of various data in Misce llaneous Publications 109 , 110, 163 in 1977 to 1980 and 176 in 1981 on. In answer to a query on this point the New Zeala nd Services was unable to indicate where this information mi ght be accessed in the 114. literature. Some is available in non-meteorological publications such as Chambers (1984). Tuvalu lies sufficiently south of the equator to be relatively unaffected by the periodic droughts experienced in Kiribati on a more or less regular five to seven year cycle, although on rare occasions the equatorial dry episodes have been sufficiently abnormal to affect the northernmost islands of Tuvalu. Otherwise, the climate of the group is characterised by a uniformity of temperatures and an abundant rainfall. Light to moderate easterly trades prevail from March to October with northerly and westerly gales and accompanying r~ins becoming frequent from November to February . Annual rainfall varies bet ween 2500 and 3500 mm with December to March being the wettest months and May to September the driest. An excellent review of the climate is contained in Seeyle (1943). The New Zealand Meteorological Service published a comprehensive survey of the weather and c limate shortly after submission of the original manuscript of the present compilation. Because of the profound effect climate has on the very existence and continued growth of these islands, a number of recent accounts concerned with the consequences and environmental af termath of hurricanes in Tuvalu have been included along with some concerned with the general environment and descriptions of geological deposits which may owe their origins to c limatic factors. In both these connections, and i nsofar as the bulk of the references annotated here are concerned, few a r e given in Rodgers (1985) which contained a relatively small meteorological input. Many of the present citations were drawn to the authors I attentions as a result of publication of that earlier bibliography. As non-meteorologists the authors were intrigued by the lack of precise records on hurricanes in the group. Rooke (1886 ) is included here as providing the sole published record to the storm of 1886 which he referred to as a hurricane. Perhaps this is the same storm as described in Dana (1935). A hurricane in 1891 is noted in Schott 115. (1938 ). It is not re fe rred to elsewhere. A well d oc umented descri ption of an extremely s evere storm in the vicinity of Funafuti c . 30 October 1894 is g iven by Festetics de Tolna (1903). That there was a major hurricane affecting Funafuti in the early 1980s is no t in doubt, but whether it occurred in 1891 (e . g . Schott, 1938) or at a latter date is less clear. The reason for the confusion appears t o ha ve resulted from the absence of all bar one of the population of Fonga fale when the storm struck. A manuscript entitled "Alone in a Hu rricane " by Reynolds is believed to exist which gives a n eye-witness account. However, it was not found by the authors during the present su rvey . In this connection, the description and record of an extremely severe storm in the vicinity of Funafuti c .30 October 1894 by Festetics de To lna (1903) can be noted , although the date seems well r emoved from 18 91. Wh ile many of the physical effects and biological consequen ces of Bebe i n 1 9 72 have been well documented the authors were unaware that any eye-wi tness account of that storm existed until finding Rawlins ' (1972) F r enc h language account occurring in the limited circulation Sout h Pac i f i c Commission Fisheries Information Letter . The importance of th is a cc oun t is such tha t a translation is given here by way of an a ppe nd i x to the present bibliography . Fu rther, the documentation of Hurricane Bebe by Askenov (1975) seems to have been overlooked by most western students of this storm . Th e problem in putting precise dates on these major storms , pa r t i c ula rl y those of last century, is c ompounded by two other factors : lay me n tend to u se the term "hurricane" for any large, spectacular sto rm occ urring in these l a titudes, while such storms can be extremely local i sed in their more spectacular manifestations.