Freddy Keeps Flexing
Back on February 24th Tropical Cyclone Freddy - then classified a Very Intense Tropical Cyclone by Météo-France - struck the east coast of Mozambique.
Later today, Freddy is expected to again strike Mozambique with a rare double hit. It's yet one more impressive statistic from the cyclone that just won't stop.
Freddy first formed off Australia's north-west coast back on 6th February. After initially tracking towards Sumba, Freddy did an about turn and has since traversed the entire Indian Ocean basin - only the fourth cyclone in history to do so.
Cyclone Freddy's path, beginning on 6th February off our north-west coast, crossing Madagascar, then Mozambique, and now threatening Mozambique a second time.
As he started his east to west run, Freddy was a Category 4 cyclone, intensifying further as he travelled west and fell under the watch of Météo-France - France's meteorological organisation.
On the 19th February, Freddy reached peak intensity as a Very Intense Tropical Cyclone (equivalent to Category 5) while skirting Mauritius and Réunion Island to the north, striking Madagascar two days later on the 21st February.
Freddy survived the overland path and reintensified in the Mozambique Channel striking Mozambique on the 24th February. The reintensification was just one of six, making Freddy the only known tropical cyclone to achieve six separate rapid intensification cycles.
Freddy again weakened over land, before moving back east towards the Mozambique Channel, his movements confounding cyclone watchers.
Gathering energy over the warm waters of the Mozambique Channel, Freddy threatened to make landfall on Madagascar a second time, this time approaching from the west. Instead, Freddy again changed course and is now offshore from Mozambique threatening it with a second landfall.
Freddy is now the longest-lasting cyclone in recorded history, surpassing Hurricane John which traversed the North Pacific in 1994, lasting for 31 days. Freddy has survived 32 days.
Freddy also holds the record for 'accumulated cyclone energy', which is a metric to gauge a cyclone’s strength over time.
Hurricane John, however, holds the record for the farthest-traveling tropical cyclone ever observed at 11,531kms. So far Freddy has travelled approx. 8,000kms.
The time lapse footage below - captured by Europe's Sat 9 satellite - shows three weeks of Freddy's journey, from the central Indian Ocean onwards.
Comments
Fascinating story, I was reading about it yesterday on ABC, I thought SN should and surely would do a story .. was wondering is it at all possible that a long lived cyclone could form on the east coast and travel down through Victoria and into SA ... or does the west to east movement of weather patterns nullify this? If it can happen has anyone written a paper or written about the weather system scenarios that have to come together to make this happen??
"Almost 90 percent of these storms form within 20° north or south of the Equator. Poleward of those latitudes, sea surface temperatures are too cool to allow tropical cyclones to form, and mature storms moving that far north or south will begin to dissipate."
Question though, what's the farthest from the equator a cyclone/hurricane has ever made it?
What about the one that jus hit NZ.
Also I remember back early 90's one came down the NSW Coast, but was well offshore ???
would that have been cyclone Justin, he crossed the coast up at Cairns about 6 times, lasted 6 weeks, stayed off the east coast and finally crossed land south of Sydney i think, biggest i have ever seen South west rocks opposite the caravan park,
Amazing how much puff they lose once they are over land and cut off from the warmth and moisture of the ocean
That is wild!
Wow. Awesome. Great effort Freddy.
I wonder how many rare and unsurfed points and reefs in the more tucked away regions of the Indian Ocean lit up with not a soul to be seen under Freddys influence.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. I'm not sure what supporting structure Freddy had to create a good fetch, however he was very strong and moving pretty slow at times, so the potential for swell up in the distant corners of the Arabian Sea, for instance, were good.
The mind boggles!
Actually painful to imagine all those potentially empty firing lineups with just a couple of camels looking over them..
wasn't there a kid around Freshwater that did cool surfing camel doodles? Got pretty famous. Perhaps the camel was a lone shredder out there.
maybe it was a sloth. I dunno.
there was very good waves on islands in the northern Indian Ocean, saw photos of a few spots peeling off - for half a day only apparently
Remarkable
Yhe Freddy!
Incredible !!
Over the next few decades we are likely to see things almost unimaginable now. Those politicians, and the numbnut climate denialists of today, may find their heads on spikes to warn others of the dangers of ignoring science.
It's just the lemon next to the pie.
I'm planning on staying alive, old, useless and decrepit just to hang around to see the shit storm.
When do think Freddy will run out of steam stu ?
Just smashed Mozambique again.
https://zoom.earth/storms/freddy-2023/
"Freddy is forecast to rapidly weaken through the forecast period and should dissipate in 2 days."
(Info button for forecast)
Final warming for Freddy..