Tropical Cyclone Batsirai, Category 4: has hitted Mauritius and heading west towards Madagascar and Mozambique
Batsirai was started as a low pressure system on 23 of january over Indian Ocean, continued as a tropical low pressure system on 26 of january, intensified to a tropical storm on 27 january, while on 29 of january became a tropical cyclone. Already, at least 7.500 houses are without power in Mauritius, after the pass of the tropical storm, due to the strong winds of 120 km/h, with a peak of 151 km/h recorded in the capital Port Louis and the intense rainfall which reached 700mm near to the Piton de la Fournaise volcano. Batsirai is a tropical cyclone Category 4 and is heading southwest towards Madagascar.
I see people asking for authenticity of the video. Well it is very authentic since i heard the word gogot in the video. #Mauritius #Batsirai #BatsiraiCyclone https://t.co/MuaPCtZp4H
— Ashvina Gangoo (@Ashvina_Gangoo) February 3, 2022
AFTER 1 WEEK SINCE TROPICAL STORM ANA: it's been almost one week since the death and devastation of Tropical Storm Ana with which almost 80 people have lost their lives. Madagascar was declared in a state of national catastrophe, mourning 48 victims, while 130.000 people were forced to flee their homes. In Mozambique 18 people had lost their lives and 778 schools were destroyed.
Tropical #StormAna has left families displaced in #Malawi .
— WFP Africa (@WFP_Africa) January 28, 2022
In addition to supporting the government, @WFP is mobilizing resources. We have deployed boats to carryout search and rescue operations.
We will provide food and use cash-based transfers to reach the people in need. pic.twitter.com/PhAYjLxMZ6
TRACKING BATSIRAI: Tropical Storm Batsirai is located today (3/02/2022) west of Mauritius and is now equivalent to a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane with a pressure of 938mbars and winds close to 215km/h. Batsirai is heading southwest and will reach Madagascar on Friday night with gust winds of 130-140 km/h in the western regions. Rainfall of 250 to 500 mm is forecast for the southeast region of the island with the heaviest rainfall to occur on Saturday and Sunday. These severe phenomena will be accompanied by stormy winds and strong thunderstorms. Citizens should be prepared for the landfall as the severe phenomena will bring floods and will be able to destroy structures. Batsirai will continue its southwestern course and will hit Mozambique on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th. But, after its landfall in Madagascar it seems that it will lose some of its strength, thus it will be categorised as a Tropical Storm. Wind gusts still will be strong reaching 80-90km/h in the southeastern regions of the country and heavy rain is expected to be more intense in the southeastern areas.
Ciclone #Batsirai
— roberto (@herisson13) February 2, 2022
Trombe marine. La superficie uguale a quella della Francia. pic.twitter.com/vOA2dlCJQ7
TROPICAL STORMS ARE BECOMING MORE NOWADAYS: the island has on average about 1 landfalling tropical cyclone each year, but it's really rare when storms reaching Category 4 or greater. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's historical hurricane tracks, there have only been 12 landfalling storms of Category 4 equivalent or greater in Madagascar since records began in 1911, with the 8 of them having struck since the year 2000.