A tropical cyclone, dubbed Cyclone Fantala, is dangerously
close to the northern coast of Madagascar! Its wind speeds make it equivalent
to a category five hurricane, and it is the only tropical cyclone on earth
at this time, according to the Washington Post. “Category five” is the highest
rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale; it signifies sustained wind speeds
of 157 mph or higher. This morning (the morning of April 18th)
Fantala was circling in the Southern Indian Ocean 217 miles north of Antsiranana,
a far northern city in Madagascar, with winds of 172 mph that were causing 40
ft. high waves. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite revealed “a 16 nautical-mile-wide eye
surrounded by a powerful ring of convective (rising air that forms storms)
thunderstorms with a second convective ring beginning to develop” (phys.org,
link below). Fantala is a “compact” storm, meaning that its hurricane force winds
do not actually extend that far from the center of the cyclone– only 25 miles,
according to the NASA technology. If Fantala traveled a mere 200 miles south of
its current location, it would wreak catastrophic damage on Madagascar’s
northern coasts, but it is forecast to move southeast in the coming days and
weaken as it does so. It will likely reach northeastern Madagascar on April 22,
but by that point no longer qualify as category five storm. NASA captured some
incredible images pictured below and I highly encourage everyone to check out
some of these links or google news the hurricane! I don’t know much about storm
systems but I thought I would alert everyone in case there are any meteorologists
out there! Also, apparently it is very late in the season for a tropical cyclone of this magnitude to form, and doubly unusual because it is an El Nino year.
Sources:
-- Maya Lorey
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