The cyclone reached its peak intensity on 20 February, with ten-minute sustained winds of 280 km/h (170 mph) and a pressure of 884 hPa (mbar; 26.10 inHg), shortly before making landfall on Viti Levu, Fiji.

The system persisted for more than a week over the Coral Sea before ultimately moving over Queensland, Australia and dissipating on 3 March, 26 days after being classified a tropical disturbance.

In the following weeks, a coalition of international support, including intergovernmental agencies, brought tens of millions of dollars in aid and hundreds of tons of supplies to residents in Fiji.

Though frequented by tropical cyclones in general, the main islands of Fiji—Viti Levu and Vanua Levu—are seldom impacted by intense storms like Winston.

[5] The relative lack of strong tropical cyclones affecting the capital city of Suva, located along the southeastern coast of Viti Levu, led to complacency among residents.

With Winston approaching Fiji from the east and directly threatening Suva as a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone, Angela Fritz of The Washington Post called the storm a worst-case scenario.

[3] On 7 February 2016, the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) started to monitor Tropical Disturbance 09F, which had developed about 1,000 km (620 mi) northwest of Port Vila, Vanuatu.

[7] On 10 February, the United States-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) initiated advisories on the system and classified it as Tropical Cyclone 11P, while it was located about 860 km (535 mi) to the west-northwest of Suva, Fiji.

[8] The FMS upgraded it to Category 1 status on the Australian tropical cyclone scale and assigned it the name Winston early on 11 February; at this time the storm was situated roughly 820 km (510 mi) west-northwest of Suva, Fiji.

[9] Around 12:00 UTC on the same day, Winston intensified into a Category 2 tropical cyclone, as a small, well-defined eye developed within deepening convection.

[31] Another period of rapid intensification took place on 19 February as the storm's 27 km (17 mi) wide eye became surrounded by intense convection.

[32] Winston acquired Category 5 status—the highest level on the Australian intensity scale—by 06:00 UTC, with ten-minute sustained winds reaching 205 km/h (127 mph).

Passing just south of Vanua Levu, Winston achieved its record intensity early on 20 February with ten-minute sustained winds of 280 km/h (170 mph) and a pressure of 907 hPa (mbar; 26.10 inHg).

[16] At peak intensity, it revealed a fairly symmetric convective structure with a 25 km (16 mi) round eye, under low vertical wind shear easily offset by strong divergence aloft; moreover, sea surface temperatures remained warm, near 28 °C (82 °F).

[41] Despite deteriorating slightly while crossing the northern portion of Viti Levu, Winston remained well-organised, reforming a ragged and cloud-filled eye after re-emerging into open waters.

[45] Very strong vertical wind shear and cooling sea surface temperatures resulted in steady weakening, and Winston dropped below severe tropical cyclone intensity on 23 February.

Late on 24 February, when Winston entered TCWC Wellington's area of responsibility, the JTWC issued the final warning and indicated subtropical characteristics, citing the weakening mid-level warm core and the expanding wind field.

[53] Although Winston began to move northwestwards and track over warmer sea surface temperature since 27 February, unfavourable upper-level conditions as well as dry air prevented reintensification.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology reported that Winston had eventually transitioned into a tropical low and made landfall over the coast north of Cairns, at 1200 UTC on 3 March, locally at night.

[95] The southern coast of Vanua Levu was battered by a significant storm surge which inundated areas up to 183 m (600 ft) inland near Tacilevu Village.

[101] Winston also affected Niue on 16 February; the FMS also issued tropical cyclone and damaging heavy swell warnings for the island nation.

[108] Severe storms on 29 February associated with the outer bands of Winston's remnants brought locally heavy rains to parts of Queensland.

[111] Cyclone Winston's devastating impact across Fiji rendered tens of thousands homeless, and prompted a major international humanitarian response.

[121] Rakiraki Town was shut down to travel at 7:30 a.m. local time on 23 February to allow crews to clear debris from roads.

[125] The spread of breeding grounds for mosquitos brought on by the storm led to an increase in dengue fever cases, with 131 incidents reported after Winston's passage.

[150] The IFRC released CHF 317,469 from their Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to support the Fijian Red Cross and 5,000 people in need of immediate aid.

[151] Relief teams from charities and non-governmental organizations including AmeriCares, Caritas International, MapAction, and ShelterBox were deployed to Fiji to assist with recovery efforts within a day of the storm.

[158] New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully toured Fiji on 29 February and described the damage as "an endless sea of [airplane] crashes".

[165] Forty members of the Royal Australian Air Force were deployed to Nausori on 27 February,[166] and twenty-two medical personnel were sent at other times.

[168] During November 2016, the WMO retired the name Winston due to the storm's extensive damage to the South Pacific islands and was subsequently replaced by the name Wanita.