- Title
- South Indian Ocean basin [IN "State of the Climate in 2019"]
- Creator
- Magee, A. D.; Schreck, C. J.
- Relation
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Vol. 101, Issue 8, p. S221-S223
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0077.1
- Publisher
- American Meteorological Society
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- The South Indian Ocean (SIO) TC basin extends south of the equator and from the African coastline to 90°E. In the SIO, TC genesis typically occurs south of 10°S. While the SIO TC season extends year-round, from July to June, the majority of activity occurs between November and April when the ITCZ is located in the SH. The 2018/19 TC season includes TCs that occurred from July 2018–June 2019. Landfalling TCs typically impact Madagascar, Mozambique, and the Mascarene Islands, including Mauritius and Réunion Island. The Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) on La Réunion is the official monitoring agency for TC activity within the SIO basin. The 2018/19 SIO season had 11 named storms, 10 cyclones, and eight major cyclones (Fig 4.32a), compared to the IBTrACS–JTWC 1981–2010 mean of 9.1, 5.5, and 2.9, respectively (Schreck et al., 2014). The eight major cyclones broke the previous record of seven in 1993/94. The 2018/19 SIO sea- son also had a record-breaking number of cyclone days, 39 days in total, overtaking the previous records of 1993/94 (36 days) and 2001/02 (35 days). Unfortunately, the season also set records for deaths and economic losses with over 1300 fatalities and total damage exceeding $2.3 billion (U.S. dollars). Cyclone Idai caused the majority of deaths and damage and was one of the worst natural disasters on record to impact southern Africa.
- Subject
- ocean; tropical cyclones; storms; African coastline
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1444685
- Identifier
- uon:42375
- Identifier
- ISSN:0003-0007
- Language
- eng
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