The storm was named on Feb 6 as it formed off northern Australia and began a journey of more than 6,400km across the Indian Ocean. Read more at straitstimes.com.
JOHANNESBURG – Cyclone Freddy, which has already hit several countries in southeastern Africa and caused 21 deaths as of Thursday, was on track to be declared the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record – beating the previous record of 31 days – as it continued its path of ruin across the region.
By Thursday morning, Freddy had been downgraded to a severe tropical storm, but forecasters said that they expected it to power up again, becoming a cyclone once more by the time it returns to thump into the Mozambican coastline. The cyclone picked up power again in the warm channel of water between Madagascar and mainland Africa before reaching Mozambique on Feb 24, where flooding brought more deaths. The deluge of rain has stretched as far as landlocked Zimbabwe.
As Freddy continued to swirl between Mozambique and Madagascar, the World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations agency, said that it was on track to become the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record. The organisation has set up a committee to evaluate whether Freddy had surpassed the previous mark, set by a tropical cyclone called John in the Pacific in 1994, taking into account Freddy’s shifts in intensity.
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