Record Cyclone Hits Mozambique and Malawi For A Second Time, Killing Over 100
At over a month old, Tropical Cyclone Freddy has become the longest-lived and most energetic tropical cyclone ever recorded, as it made a second landfall across Mozambique and Malawi with sustained winds of nearly 100 miles per hour after rapidly intensifying for a record-smashing seventh time. The storm first developed on February 6 and took a 5,500-mile route across the Indian Ocean traveling over Madagascar before it made landfall in Mozambique on February 24, then headed back out to Madagascar, and then again turned back to Mozambique and made landfall again this past weekend. Mozambique has suffered more than a year’s worth of rain in the past month, raising concerns that rivers could burst from their banks and trigger huge floods. Some of the impacted areas could get more than 25 inches of rain. Scientists have found climate change is making tropical storms stronger as climate pollution warms oceans, evaporating seawater and transferring heat energy back into the atmosphere, which generates stronger storms more prone to rapid intensification. (CNN, AP, Reuters, Al Jazeera, BBC, Washington Post $)
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