Cyclone Val
| Category 4 severe tropical cyclone (Aus scale) | |
|---|---|
| Category 4 (Saffir–Simpson scale) | |
Satellite image of Cyclone Val (center) and Cyclone Wasa
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| Formed | December 4, 1991 |
| Dissipated | December 17, 1991 |
| (Extratropical after December 13, 1991) | |
| Highest winds |
10-minute sustained: 165 km/h (105 mph) 1-minute sustained: 230 km/h (145 mph) |
| Lowest pressure | 940 hPa (mbar); 27.76 inHg |
| Fatalities | 16 direct |
| Damage | $301 million (1991 USD) |
| Areas affected | Tuvalu, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, Samoa, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga |
| Part of the 1991–92 South Pacific cyclone season | |
Severe Tropical Cyclone Val was considered to be the worst tropical cyclone, to affect the Samoan Islands since the 1889 Apia cyclone.
The cyclone lasted for five days in American Samoa and was designated by the United States Government as a major disaster on December 13, 1991. Western Samoa suffered more damage than American Samoa. The cyclone devastated the islands with 150-mile-per-hour (240 km/h) winds and 50-foot (15 m) waves. The overall damages caused by Cyclone Val in American Samoa have been variously assessed. One estimate put the damages at $50 million in American Samoa and $200 million in Western Samoa due to damage to electrical, water, and telephone connections and destruction of various government buildings, schools, and houses.
On December 1, 1991 the Fiji Meteorological Service started to monitor a small circulation, that had developed along the Intertropical Convergence Zone, just to the north of Tokelau as a result of a surge within the westerlies. Over the next two days, the system moved westwards towards Rotuma and Tuvalu, where it lied near the centre of an upper level outflow mechanism. During December 4, as the system continued to develop, it was classified as a depression by the FMS, while it was located just to the southeast of Tuvalu and moving towards the northwest. Early the next day the system was named Val by the FMS, after it had become a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale. During that day the United States Naval Western Oceanography Center (NWOC) designated the system as Tropical Cyclone 06P and started to issue advisories, while Val started to move towards the south-southeast after the upper level north-westerly steering winds had increased. During December 6, the NWOC reported that the system had become equivalent to a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale as Val continued to steadily intensify and moved south-eastwards, away from Tuvalu and towards Western Samoa. Early on December 7, the FMS reported that the system had become a category 3 severe tropical cyclone as the cyclone started to be steered southwards by upper-level northerlies.
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