February 22, 2023 - Tropical Cyclone Freddy Slams Madagascar

Freddy
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After traveling for 15 days across the Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone
Freddy made landfall on the east coast of Madagascar on the evening of
February 21, 2023.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of Freddy roaring
toward Madagascar hours before landfall on February 21. Near the time
the image was acquired, maximum sustained winds were estimated at 120
mph (193 km/h) or the equivalent of a Category 3 storm on the
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Fortunately, Tropical Cyclone Freddy was rapidly losing power. As
Freddy made landfall north of Mananjary around 7:20 p.m. local time, it
had weakened to Category 1 strength, with winds estimated at about 80
mph (130 km/h), although precise windspeeds at landfall were yet to be
confirmed. The coastal town of Mananjary, home to 25,000 people, was
previously hit hard in February 2022 by the deadly Cyclone Batsirai.

Forecasts called for Freddy to bring damaging winds, storm surge, and
heavy rains as the storm moves inland. Rainfall may be especially
damaging in places still recovering from Cyclone Cheneso, which killed
dozens of people and left thousands homeless in the island nation in
January 2023. Since forming near Indonesia on February 6, Freddy has
traveled about 7,200 kilometers across the Indian Ocean, according to
the UK Met Office. The 15-day lifespan of the cyclone is unusual; few
cyclones travel so far and are sustained for so long. The longest-lived
tropical cyclone in the southern hemisphere was Leon-Eline in 2000,
which was sustained for 18.5 days and traveled a similar path to
Freddy.

Freddy was forecasted to continue moving westward and cross into the
Mozambique Channel before strengthening and landing on Mozambique later
in the week. Freddy was the second cyclone to hit Madagascar during the
2022–2023 season, which runs from around late October to May in the
southwest Indian Ocean.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 2/21/2023
Resolutions: 1km (1.1 MB), 500m (3 MB), 250m (2.1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-02-22

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