Four Fijian weather stations recorded their lowest October rainfall since observations began at each site, according to the Fiji Climate Summary for October 2026, published by the Fiji Meteorological and Hydrological Services.
Nadi Airport recorded 0.3mm for the month, below its previous October low of 1.8mm set in 1942. Yasawa-i-Rara recorded 0.4mm against a previous low of 26.3mm in 1950, and Viwa 0.6mm against 1.9mm in 1978.
Rotuma recorded 29.2mm, below a mark of 80mm that had stood since 1912, as The Fiji Times reported.
Tavua was the driest reporting station in the country. It recorded 0mm, and no day of measurable rainfall.
Yaqara, Rarawai Mill in Ba and Yasawa-i-Rara each recorded a single rain day. Lautoka Mill, Momi, Viwa and Nadi Airport each recorded two. Rarawai Mill's monthly total was 1.1mm, Lakeba's 1.9mm, and Keiyasi and Momi reached 2mm each.
The wettest stations were inland and to the south-east. Monasavu recorded 183.4mm over 23 rain days, Navua 91mm over 21 and Koronivia 76.8mm over 19. The highest daily total anywhere was 33mm, at RKS Lodoni on 18 October.
Of the 27 stations that reported, 26 recorded well below normal rainfall. Monasavu, the wettest, was the only one classed as below normal.
"Suppressed rainfall continued across the country, with rainfall ranging from well below to below normal," the report stated, adding that stations "have mostly received less than half of its usual rainfall for October". A low-pressure system affected Fiji early in the month, but no significant 24-hour rainfall events were recorded. The service notes that dry conditions of this kind are typically associated with El Nino.
The classification is the thing to hold on to. The national range of outcomes for October ran from well below normal to below normal, and the second category has one member. Fiji's wettest place last month was the only station not to be badly short of rain, which makes 183.4mm a disappointment and 0.3mm a category.
Between those two readings lies a factor of more than six hundred. The scale accommodates it without strain, because both ends are a shortfall, and a shortfall is a shortfall.
The rain day deserves attention too. It is a count of the days on which measurable rain fell, and at Tavua that count was zero. A month with no rain days contains no rainfall events, and a month with no rainfall events has nothing in it that can be set against a normal October.
Our analysts therefore regard Tavua's October as unclassifiable rather than dry. The station did not record below-normal rainfall. It recorded no rainfall, which is a different kind of statement and, strictly, not a measurement of the weather at all.
The Department of Unnecessary Research has one recommendation for the next summary. Where a station reports no rain days, the entry should give not a monthly total but the number of times the question was asked, which at Tavua was thirty-one.