The tropical low gradually intensified while stalling offshore of Queensland for several days, although disorganized at the time.

Soon afterward, Niran initiated an eyewall replacement cycle and encountered some wind shear, causing the storm to weaken on 6 March, as it passed just to the south of Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia.

Afterwards, Niran continued rapidly weakening as wind shear increased further, before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone late on 6 March.

[1] During 27 February, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) began to monitor a developing tropical low off the coast of northern Queensland.

[5] Niran began to pull away from the coast of Australia and underwent rapid intensification, reaching Category 3 severe tropical cyclone status on the Australian scale late on 3 March,[6] and then reaching Category 4 severe tropical cyclone status on the Australian scale late on 4 March.

[7] Eventually, Niran intensified into a powerful Category 5 tropical cyclone on both the Australian region and the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS), at 12:00 UTC on 5 March, displaying a well-defined pinhole eye.

Shortly afterward, the storm crossed into the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS)'s area of responsibility, even as it accelerated southeastward towards New Caledonia.

Niran continued moving southeastward for another couple of days, before being absorbed into a larger extratropical cyclone to the south on 8 March.

[9] A gale warning was issued on 2 March for coastal and island communities, Cape Flattery and Innisfail, though it was cancelled when Niran moved away.

[10] As the storm approached, New Caledonia was placed on high alert, as Niran was expected to cause severe damage in the country, especially on the main island of Grande Terre.

[16][8] Authorities placed the entire island nation under a Level Two Tropical Cyclone Alert late on 5 March as the storm bore down on the country.

[17] Air Calédonie moved their entire fleet of airplanes to Brisbane, Australia, in order to protect them from the storm.