After a long dry period towards the end of last year that impacted the use of hydropower plants and resulted in water reservoir levels dropping, the heavens finally opened in Samoa with heavy downpours forecast for January this year.

Samoa Meteorological Service in its weather bulletin said since December 2022 there has been consistent reports of heavy downpours in several parts of the country.

Weather patterns such as the moist northwest windflow currently prevail over the group of islands, providing unsettled weather conditions as experienced by the country, which may lead to showery activities from time to time for Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Additionally a convergence zone just south is slowly moving over the group and is predicted to introduce deteriorating weather from Thursday towards the weekend. 

"Accordingly, a likeable issuance of a heavy rain advisory is intended to be activated prior to the system’s arrival but for today, anticipate some scattered showers with moderate falls in some areas and thunderstorms possible," the Samoa Meteorological Service advise reads.

Meanwhile, last week an earthquake with magnitude 6.0 struck the Vanuatu Region with depth of 10 km, according to the Samoa Meteorological Office, which added that there was no tsunami threat to Samoa from the earthquake.