dyton mupawaenda
Sifelani Tsiko
Innovations Editor
At least six tropical cyclones reportedly developed at the same time over the southern hemisphere, weather trackers have shown.
This rare meteorological phenomena happened towards the end of February.
Climate analysts say the Pacific Ocean recorded six simultaneous named storms on just one occasion some 51 years ago (August 1974), while the Atlantic record of five was set in September 1971.
According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, three cyclones developed in the south-west Pacific, with Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which formed on 20 February, picking up sustained winds of 170km/h and gusts of about 140mph.
Alfred moved south closer to the Queensland coast in Australia where warnings were issued for strong winds and rough seas.
On the east in the southwest Pacific, two short-lived storms, Rae and Seru, reached category 2 tropical storms.
Cyclone Rae developed just north of Fiji on February 22 before travelling south across the island.
Tropical Cyclone Seru moved southwards, travelling to the east of Vanuatu and New Caledoni.
Tropical Cyclone Bianca, which formed in the Timor Sea to the north-west of Australia, was active between 18 and 27 February in the south-east Indian Ocean, moving westward before veering south, allowing it to curve around the continent without making landfall.
Tropical Cyclone Garance in the south-west Indian Ocean spiralled closer to Madagascar before moving southwards.
Severe tropical storm Honde formed in the Mozambique channel and travelled south-east, where it skirted in the southern tip of Madagascar.
“Though infrequent, it is far from unusual for this many storms to exist concurrently. A far rarer occurrence is for this many storms to occur within a single ocean basin,” a weather analyst said.
All the cyclones never affected the interior of the southern African sub-continent, where the frequency of tropical cyclones has increased over the past two decades.
The most damaging tropical cyclones of the past few years were tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which hit in March and April of 2019.
Idai killed more than 1 500 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter