User:Jason Rees/William

Meteorological history
Towards the end of December 1994, several areas of low pressure, developed within the South Pacific Convergence Zone between the antimeridian and 160&deg;W. During December 30, one of these areas of low pressure that had been moving northwards, developed into a tropical depression while located just to the east of Pukapuka atoll in the Northern Cook Islands. During December 31, the United States Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center designated the system as Tropical Cyclone 05P and intiated advisories, while it was located near Suwarrow in the Northern Cook Islands. The system subsequently continued to move south-eastwards and gradually develop further

At 21:00 UTC on January 1 (13:00 TAHT, January 1, 09:00 FST, January 2), the FMS reported that the system had become a tropical cyclone and named it William, after they had assessed that gale-force winds had wrapped around the whole of the system. At this stage, the newly-named system was located about 145 km to the northeast of Aitutaki in the Southern Cook Islands and was moving south-eastwards towards the island. At around 03:00 UTC (17:00 UTC-10, January 1) as William moved closer to the atoll sustained winds of 42 kn were recorded, before a minimum pressure of 975 hPa was recorded at around 06:00 UTC (20:00 TAHT, January 1) as the system passed near or over the island. At this time, the NPMOC reported that the system had peaked with 1-minute sustained windspeeds of 65 kn, which would make it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. During that day, the system subsequently passed near or over several other Southern Cook Islands including Aitu, Mauke and Mitaro, before the FMS estimated that the system had peaked as a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale, with 10-minute sustained wind speeds of 60 kn. During January 3, the system passed near or over the French Polynesian islands of Maria and Rimatara, where sustained winds of 62 kn and wind gusts of up to 83 kn were recorded. Later that day, the system left the tropics and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone, as it entered New Zealand Met Service's area of responsibility for tropical cyclone warnings. William's extratropical remnants subsequently continued to move south-eastwards within the westerlies and were tracked by MetService for another couple of days, before they were last noted near 40.0S 119.5E during January 5, as they moved out of the South Pacific basin.

Cook Islands
Gale force winds of 40 kn and a minimum pressure of 993.8 hPa were reported on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands during January 1.

Throughout the Southern Cook Islands caused around worth of damage to crops, buildings and coconut trees and destroyed a causeway to a tourist resort on Aitutaki.

French Polynesia
William injured two people and destroyed over 150 houses in French Polynesia, where local leaders accused Météo-France off underestimating Williams intensity.

In the Austral Islands, it was estimated that William had caused more than or around  in damages.