With at least 27 fatalities in Madagascar and Mozambique since it first touched down last month, tropical storm Freddy was on pace to impact the southern African coast early on Saturday.
The International Meteorological Organization stated that a 31-day hurricane in 1994 now holds the record for the longest-lasting tropical cyclone, but that Freddy, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, may have broken it.
On February 6th, 33 days ago, Freddy was given his name.
According to the U.N. humanitarian organisation OCHA, the cyclone that hit southern Mozambique two weeks ago had a significant impact on more than 171,000 people, bringing with it severe rains and flooding that wrecked homes and damaged crops.
The most recent death toll from Freddy was 27 as on Friday, with 10 occurring in Mozambique and 17 in Madagascar, according to OCHA.
Mozambique’s national disaster management organisation estimates that up to 565,000 people might be at risk this time in the provinces of Zambezia, Tete, Sofala, and Nampula, with Zambezia anticipated to be the worst-hit.
Its central area director, Nelson Ludovico, stated that the organisation has relocated people to temporary shelters in anticipation of the storm’s arrival in the early hours of Saturday.
“cyclone is travelling slowly. Its proximity to the shore and increased moisture absorption mean that the rainfall will be greater, which is bad news for those who want their rain to be light “According to World Meteorological Organization spokesman Clare Nullis, who talked to journalists in Geneva.
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According to her, the storm is anticipated to provide extremely heavy rainfall over a significant portion of Mozambique as well as northeastern Zimbabwe, southeast Zambia, and Malawi.
Hurricanes are becoming wetter, windier, and more intense globally due to climate change, according to experts. A large portion of the heat from greenhouse gas emissions is absorbed by the oceans, and as heated saltwater evaporates, its heat energy is transferred to the atmosphere, intensifying storms.
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Freddy has established a record for having the largest cumulative cyclone energy of any storm in the history of the Southern Hemisphere.
According to Nullis, the storm has generated nearly the same amount of total cyclone energy as a typical North Atlantic hurricane season.
“World record or not, Freddy will remain in any case an exceptional phenomenon for the southwest Indian Ocean history on many aspects: longevity, distance covered, remarkable maximum intensity, accumulated cyclone energy amount, [and] impact on inhabited lands,” said Sebastien Langlade, a cyclone forecaster at the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in La Reunion, in a statement from the WMO.
Reuters
