Fiji Meteorological Service

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The Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) is Fiji’s government department that provides weather forecasts. It is based at Nadi Airport in Nadi, and the director is Misaeli Funaki. Since 1985, FMS has been responsible for naming and tracking tropical cyclones in the Southwest Pacific. Our weather specialists typically hold a Graduate Diploma in Meteorology from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Historically, Fiji’s weather work began with the harbour board before World War II. After a 1939 conference, Suva became the focus for a Pacific-weather center, with a facility at Laucala Bay in 1940 that expanded to support the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The United States Army Air Forces also operated meteorology units at Nadi during 1942. After the war, the Nadi Weather Office was civilianized and merged with Laucala Bay. Since 1995, Nadi has been one of six Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers under the World Weather Watch program of the World Meteorological Organization, focusing on tropical cyclone forecasts south of the equator to 25°S and between 160°E and 120°W.

FMS issues public and marine weather bulletins for Kiribati, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, Nauru, and Fiji. It acts as the Meteorological Watch Office for the Nadi Flight Information Region, which spans from Western Kiribati to Tuvalu, Fiji, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and New Caledonia. It also provides aviation forecasts to some nearby islands outside the Nadi FIR.

Aviation products include Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs), Area and Route Forecasts, Inclement Weather Warnings for Nadi and Nausori, Sigmets, Tropical Cyclone Advisories, and related bulletins. Routine 24-hour TAFs are issued for major airports, with additional TAFs for other airports on certain days. FMS also releases Special Weather Bulletins, Tropical Disturbance Advisories, Tropical Cyclone Advisories, Tropical Cyclone Sigmets, CREX bulletins, and International Marine Warnings related to tropical cyclones.