The area of low pressure that eventually became Zelda formed near the International Date Line, and strengthened into a tropical depression on November 27.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that the depression had reached tropical storm intensity near the Marshall Islands on November 28, thus naming it Zelda.

On November 29, the storm quickly strengthened to 65 knots (120 km/h; 75 mph) according to the JTWC, equivalent to a Category 1 typhoon on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale.

Later in December, the president of the United States, George H. W. Bush declared the storm to be a major disaster, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist with funding and repairs.

Westerly winds near the equator – associated with an ongoing El Niño event – assisted in spawning a weak area of low pressure in late November 1991 near the International Date Line.

[1] The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) started tracking the disturbance at 06:00 UTC on November 27,[2][nb 1] and the JTWC issued their first warning 18 hours later on the depression, naming it 31W.

[nb 2] Operationally, the storm was upgraded twenty-four hours later and given the name Zelda, after Kwajalein received stronger winds than expected.

The JTWC attributed the delay to the small size of the storm, the poorly organized outflow, and the lack of visible and infrared image pairs for analysis.

[2] Around 06:00 UTC on November 30, the JMA estimated Zelda had reached its peak at 60 kn (110 km/h; 70 mph), with a barometric pressure of 975 hPa (28.8 inHg).

[17][18] United States Senator Daniel Akaka visited Ebeye after the storm, and he criticized the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as the funding did not cover repairing of structures regarded as substandard.

[19] By March 26, 1992, about $98,000 (1992 USD, equivalent to $212,779 in 2023) worth of relief goods were sent to the Marshall Islands from UNDRO, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Government of Australia.