MSGID: 1:317/3 6408cd28   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   March 8, 2023 - Record-breaking Tropical Cyclone Freddy turns back to   
   Mozambique   
      
      Freddy   
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      After accomplishing a breathtaking long-distance journey that carried   
      it over the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, and Mozambique, Cyclone Freddy   
      simply won’t give up. It has spent most of the last two weeks careening   
      like a pinball back and forth over the Mozambique Channel, creating   
      chaos in both the island of Madagascar and the African country of   
      Mozambique, where it brought extreme rains, flooding and at least 21   
      deaths between the two countries.   
      
      It has also racked up an impressive set of all-time records.   
      
      As of March 8, Tropical Cyclone Freddy appears to have captured the   
      title of the longest-lasting tropical cyclone of all time, passing the   
      31-day record set by Hurricane/Typhoon John in 1994. The World   
      Meteorological Organization (WMO) will open an investigation to confirm   
      that record, but not until the storm has dissipated. The storm also set   
      the record for all-time high accumulated cyclone energy (ACE), an index   
      measuring wind energy over cyclone life. The WMO noted that Freddy’s   
      super zonal track across the entire Indian Ocean is extremely rare,   
      with only 2 cases recorded. Freddy also seems to have captured first   
      place in rapid intensification, which occurs when wind speeds increase   
      35 mph or more within 24 hours. Freddy has undergone rapid   
      intensifications six times—three more times than any storm in the   
      Southern Hemisphere and two times more than any in the Northern   
      Hemisphere.   
      
      Freddy became a named storm off the Australian coast February 6. It   
      crossed the entire South Indian Ocean and made landfall in Madagascar   
      on 21 February, crossed the island, then made landfall over Mozambique   
      on February 24. Instead of dissipating over land, as expected, Freddy   
      took a surprise turn to the east and once again found the Mozambique   
      Channel, emerging as a weak tropical low on March 1. By March 5, Freddy   
      was a tropical storm just off the coast of southwestern Madagascar, but   
      by the next day it had spun northwestward across the Channel and began   
      another round of rapid intensification.   
      
      On March 8 at 0300 UTC (March 7 at 10:00 p.m. EST), the Joint Typhoon   
      Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Tropical Cyclone Freddy was   
      carrying maximum sustained winds of 138 mph (122 km/h), which places it   
      as a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. It   
      was located about 53 miles east of Europa Island and was traveling   
      northwest. Europa Island is a small atoll located about one-third of   
      the way between southern Madagascar and southern Mozambique. The JTWC   
      expects Freddy to weaken before making landfall on Mozambique on March   
      11.   
      
      The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board   
      NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of Tropical Cyclone   
      Freddy on March 7, shortly after it turned away from Madagascar (east)   
      to make a return to Mozambique (west).   
      
      Image Facts   
      Satellite:  Aqua   
      Date Acquired: 3/7/2023   
      Resolutions:  1km (2.4 MB),  500m (6.6 MB),  250m (5.7 MB)   
      Bands Used: 1,4,3   
      Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC   
      
      
      
   https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-03-08   
       
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