Severe Tropical Cyclone Lola is the strongest off-season tropical cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere. 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 175 km/h (110 mph). With convective rain bands wrapping into the circulation, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed Lola as having one-minute sustained winds of 215 km/h (130 mph). 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 had impacted the island nation earlier that year. The cyclone caused at four deaths and left at least four injured.

The 2023–24 South Pacific cyclone season was a below-average season within the South Pacific Ocean to the east of 160°E. The season officially started on November 1, 2023, and ended on April 30, 2024, however a tropical cyclone could form between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, and still be included in the season, as shown by Cyclone Lola which formed in October. During the season, tropical cyclones will be officially monitored by the Fiji Meteorological Service, Australian Bureau of Meteorology and New Zealand's MetService. The United States Armed Forces through the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) will also monitor the basin and issue unofficial warnings for American interests. The FMS attaches a number and an F suffix to systems that are active in the basin while the JTWC designates significant tropical cyclones with a number and a P suffix. The BoM, FMS and MetService all use the Australian Tropical Cyclone Intensity Scale and estimate winds with a 10-minute period, while the JTWC estimates winds over a 1-minute period, which are subsequently compared to the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS).