MetService is keeping a "close eye" on a tropical low that has formed near the Solomon Islands and expects it to form into a cyclone in the coming days.
MetService said the tropical low was located close to the Solomon Islands on Tuesday morning, slightly south of the islands of Rendova and Tetepare.
"The system is expected to drift south or southwest across the Solomon Sea over the next couple of days in a mostly favourable environment, and there is a moderate risk it will become a tropical cyclone today increasing to high tomorrow," MetService said.
MetService meteorologist John Law told Newshub it currently looks like the cyclone will be named on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning (NZ time).
The forecasting agency is currently predicting the impacts to be on Australia's East Coast but forecasters are keeping a "close eye on the path of the cyclone", especially once it moves away from Australia’s coast.
The Solomon Islands Meteorological Service has issued a special weather bulletin for all provinces and said winds of more than 61km/h are expected as well as swells of up to 4.5m.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to lash all the Solomon Island provinces and there is a warning of landslides and slips.
But the current modelling of the tropical low has it missing New Zealand and not impacting us.
"It is looking like it's going to run down towards the Coral Sea as a fairly significant feature and run down towards the south and the west," Law said.
"It still looks like it's going to stay away from us here in New Zealand but it's still a situation we're going to keep a close eye on and I think it's more likely to bring more impacts towards that Australian coast than anywhere else."
With New Zealand under a big area of high pressure, Law said this will keep the tropical low away from Aotearoa.
If it forms, it would be the third of the season after tropical cyclone Mal barrelled past Fiji in November, and tropical cyclone Lola smashed into Vanuatu in October.
