Severe Tropical Cyclone Lola was the strongest off-season tropical cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere during the month of October. Lola was the first tropical cyclone and severe tropical cyclone of the 2023–24 South Pacific cyclone season. Lola was first noted as an area of low pressure to the northeast of Honiara in the Solomon Islands. Over the next few days, the system gradually developed further, before it was classified as a tropical cyclone and named Lola by the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) on 22 October. Later that same day, Lola rapidly intensified into a Category 4 intensity was reached by 12:00 UTC that day, with Lola exhibiting maximum ten-minute sustained winds of . With convective rain bands wrapping into the circulation, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed Lola as having one-minute sustained winds of . At the same time, the FMS followed suit and upgraded the system to a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone. Over the next few days, the cyclone's weakening accelerated as it moved southwards before degenerated into a tropical depression on 26 October.
Cyclone Lola was the third severe tropical cyclone to impact Vanuatu during 2023, after Cyclones Judy and Kevin impacted the island nation during March 2023. The Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office (VNDMO) issued a yellow alert—indicating the threat of a tropical cyclone within 12 hours—for Penama and Sanma. The cyclone caused at least two deaths and left at least four injured.
Meteorological history
On 19 October, the Fiji Meteorological Service reported that Tropical Disturbance 01F had developed out of an area of low pressure, about to the northeast of Honiara in the Solomon Islands. At this time the system was located in an area favourable for further development, with warm sea-surface temperatures of and low to moderate vertical windshear. Over the next couple of days, the system gradually developed further as it moved south-westwards towards the Santa Cruz Islands, before it was classified as a tropical depression by the FMS on 21 October. Several hours later, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA), after the system developed a partially exposed low-level circulation center. Over the next couple of days, the system gradually moved southwestward before the FMS classified it as a tropical depression. The convective structure improved considerably, and the JTWC initiated advisories on the system and classified it as Tropical Cyclone 01P at 21:00 UTC. The cyclone drifted southward until an upper-level ridge forced the storm to the south. The FMS subsequently named the system Lola at around 03:00 UTC on 22 October, after it had developed into a Category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale.
Lola intensified into a Category 2 tropical cyclone twelve hours later, as fragmented banding that was wrapping broadly into the slowly consolidating central dense overcast (CDO). The JTWC upgraded Lola to a Category 1-equivalent cyclone on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS), with maximum one-sustained winds of . By early on 23 October, Lola had intensified into a Category 3 tropical cyclone, while the system's depiction showed that tightly wrapped convective banding was circulating around a ragged eye. Lola rapidly intensified into a Category 4 intensity was reached by 12:00 UTC that day, with Lola exhibiting maximum ten-minute sustained winds of .
At 0000 UTC on 24 October, the JTWC reported that Lola had peaked with 1-minute sustained winds estimated at , which made it equivalent to a category 4 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. At around the same time, the FMS estimated that Lola had peaked with 10-minute sustained winds of , which made it a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone. As a result, Lola become the earliest Category 5 tropical cyclone on record in the southern hemisphere. Lola's eye quickly disappeared, signaling a phase of rapid weakening. Rapidly weakened due to vertical wind shear, Lola made landfall in Sowan, at around 03:00 UTC on 25 October. The FMS and the JTWC reported that Lola's winds weakened to , for the weakening system tracked over the Malakula. During 26 October, Lola degenerated into a tropical depression, before it was last noted the next day and the JTWC issued their final advisory on the storm.
Lola's remnants passed near New Caledonia's Loyalty Islands during 27 October, before they were last noted later that day, as they moved out of the FMS area of responsibility and into New Zealand's area of responsibility monitored by MetService.