Picture Of Tropical Cyclone Freddy captured on March 8, 2023, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite.
Tropical Cyclone Freddy, an unusually long-lived storm, roamed in the Indian Ocean for more than a month.
For more than a month, Tropical Cyclone Freddy has cast about in the Indian Ocean, bringing powerful winds and downpours to anything in its long and wandering course.
The storm first developed off the North Australian coast on February 6, 2023, and after that tracked across the whole Indian Ocean before striking the east coast of Madagascar on February 21, 2023. It then crossed the Mozambique Channel and made landfall in Mozambiques Inhambane province near Vilankulo, where it stalled and dropped a big amount of rain prior to doubling back and nearly struck the west coast of Madagascar again. Since March 8, 2023, the weakening storm was following a northwesterly track toward a most likely 2nd landfall in Mozambique– this time in the Zambezia province.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this picture of the storm at 1:10 p.m. local time (11:10 Universal Time) on March 8, 2023. An infusion of dry air and the storms position over relatively cool waters meant Freddy was compromising and the eye had actually broken down when the image was gotten. Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center cautioned that Freddy will likely still hit Mozambique with sustained winds of 139 kilometers (86 miles) per hour, making it the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane.
Over the course of Freddys 32-day journey, the World Meteorological Organization says the storm most likely ended up being the longest-lasting cyclone on record. The previous record holder, Hurricane John, continued for 31 days in the Central Pacific in 1994.
Meteorologists tracking Freddys accumulated cyclone energy (ACE)– a metric that incorporates both strength and period– state the storm had an ACE of 72 since March 7, 2023. That put it in 2nd place for the most built up cyclone energy produced by a single storm considering that 1980, according to Colorado State University climatic researcher Philip Klotzbach. Ioke, a 2006 typhoon in the central Pacific, holds the record with an ACE of 85.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).