Strongest cyclone to ever hit Mozambique makes landfall
Cyclone Kenneth, the strongest storm to ever hit Mozambique, made landfall Thursday in the northern part of the country, with wind speeds of up to 140 mph.
The cyclone, which formed off the coast of Madagascar earlier this week, comes just five weeks after Cyclone Idai caused widespread destruction; Idai is blamed for the deaths of more than 1,000 people in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe and left thousands more homeless. "It's really an anomaly in the history of cyclones in this region," meteorologist Eric Holthaus told The Guardian. "There's never been storms this strong hit in the same year, let alone within five weeks of each other in Mozambique."
The storm is expected to stay stalled north of the port town Pemba, dumping at least three feet of rain over the next several days. Holthaus said a "blocking pattern" in the upper atmosphere is likely behind the stall, adding that there is evidence climate change is making blocking patterns stronger.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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