Record-breaking storm Freddy due to hit Mozambique again
Tropical Storm Freddy is due to hit the coast of Southern Africa again late Friday or early Saturday. One of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, Friday may also have broken the record for the longest lasting tropical cyclone, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The current record is held by a 31-day hurricane in 1994. Claire Nullis is a spokesperson for the WMO in Geneva. Tropical Cyclone Freddy is continuing its incredible and its dangerous journey. It's been a named tropical cyclone now for 33 days. More than 171,000 people were affected after the cyclone swept through southern Mozambique two weeks ago, bringing heavy rains and floods that damaged crops and destroyed houses, according to United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA.
OCHA on Friday put Freddy's latest death toll at 27, 10 in Mozambique and 17 in Madagascar. As many as 565,000 people could be at risk in Mozambique this time, with the province of Zambezia expected to be the hardest hit, according to the country's National Disaster Management Agency. It's a slow-moving cyclone. This is bad news in terms of rainfall because it means it's sort of hovering quite close to the coast and it's picking up more moisture, so the rainfall will be heavier. It may pick up more energy and intensify very quickly in the next 12 hours. The storm is likely to cause extreme rainfall over large parts of Mozambique, as well as northeastern Zimbabwe, Southeast Zambia and Malawi, she said. From the world, climate change is making hurricanes wetter, windier and more intense, scientists say.
Oceans absorb much of the heat from greenhouse gas emissions, and when warm seawater evaporates, its heat energy is transferred to the atmosphere, fueling stronger storms. Freddy's traveled more than 10,000 kilometers. It's generated as much accumulated cyclone energy as an average North Atlantic hurricane season.
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