Posted on 02/02/2022 7:07:28 PM PST by Roman_War_Criminal
Tropical Cyclone "Batsirai" formed well east of Madagascar on January 27, 2022, at a time Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi were still assessing severe damage caused by the passage of Tropical Cyclone "Ana."
Environmental conditions favor further intensification, leading to a possible catastrophic landfall in Madagascar on February 5. Up to 600 mm (24 inches) of rain is possible in some areas. Batsirai is the second named storm of the 2021/22 Southwest Indian Ocean cyclone season. At 06:00 UTC on February 2, Batsirai was an Intense Tropical Cyclone located approximately 246 km (153 miles) NNE of Port Louis, Mauritius.
Its maximum 10-minute sustained winds were 185 km/h (115 mph), with gusts up to 260 km/h (160 mph), while maximum 1-minute sustained winds were at 220 km/h (140 mph).
The minimum central barometric pressure was 940 hPa and the system was moving WSW at 17 km/h (10 mph).
"During the last few hours, the eye configuration has clearly improved in both visible and infrared imagery despite a warming of the cloud tops," RSMC La Reunion said at 06:00 UTC today.1
The cyclone remains under the influence of two contradictory steering flows coming from the subtropical ridge in the southwest and from a near equatorial ridge of middle troposphere in the northeast.
(Excerpt) Read more at watchers.news ...
Punishing Reunion Island when that satellite shot was taken.
1013 hPa Aka is 1013 millibars.
That is sea level air pressure.
that is a good sized storm
with that low of an air pressure
at sea level.
They definitely have cooler storm names in the Indian Ocean
I just hope all the lemurs are okay.
Lemus maybe bit vanilla prices won’t be.
That doesn’t look good!
If some rain comes to the terribly drought=impacted south of Madagasgar there will be some good resulting from this terrific storm.
The Tresta Star, a tanker from the island of Mauritius, has run aground off the eastern coast of Reunion Island, a French Department in the Indian Ocean neighboring Mauritius.
Due to Tropical Cyclone Batsirai, the vessel had set course south of the island, but suffered engine trouble and drifted towards Reunion Island. It is currently aground off Saint-Philippe, at the Tremblet, which is at the foot of the Piton de La Fournaise’s volcano. Eleven crew members are on board, comprised of seven Indians and four Bangladeshis.
IIRC, Napoleon's final resting spot. About as far from France as one can get, especially in the age of sailing ships.
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