The BoM, FMS and MetService all use the Australian Tropical Cyclone Intensity Scale and estimate windspeeds with a period of approximately ten minutes, while the JTWC estimates sustained winds over a 1-minute period, which are subsequently compared to the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS).

[1][3] These outlooks took into account a variety of factors such as a developing weak to moderate La Niña event and what had happened in previous seasons such as 1983–84, 1995–96, 2000–01, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2016–17 and 2017–18.

[1] Both outlooks also predicted that the majority of systems would occur to the west of the International Dateline, which as a result meant that the Solomon Islands had a normal to elevated risk of being impacted by a tropical cyclone.

[1][3] It was also predicted that Vanuatu and New Caledonia had a normal chance of being impacted by a tropical cyclone while Fiji, Niue, Samoa, American Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna had a normal to reduced chance of being impacted by a tropical cyclone.

The Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) noticed it and designated it as a tropical disturbance on the same day, stating it lied within a low sheared environment with good upper divergence, and over sea surface temperature at 30°C.

[5] On December 13, a subtropical cyclone formed near the Cook Islands and was designated 95P by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.