Cyclone Freddy

March 13, 2023

Freddy (active for 33 days now) is on track to become the longest-lasting tropical cyclone.
- Current record is held by Hurricane/Typhoon John (1994) which lasted for 31 days.
The storm first developed off the North Australian coast in early February and then tracked across the entire Indian Ocean before striking the east coast of Madagascar on February 21, 2023.
It then crossed the Mozambique Channel and made landfall in Mozambique’s Inhambane province near Vilankulo, where it stalled and dropped a huge amount of rain before doubling back and nearly hit the west coast of Madagascar again.
Long life of Freddy is fuelled by energy provided from warm ocean surface.
Also, there has been not much land interaction.
Conditions favourable for Tropical cyclone
- Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.
- Presence of Coriolis force.
- A pre-existing weak low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
- Upper divergence above sea level system.