Mozambique: Cyclones increasing in number, winds stronger – report

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Mozambique: Cyclones increasing in number, winds stronger – report

6:01 CAT | 01 Apr 2025

File photo: O País

The number of cyclones that hit Mozambique “has been increasing over the last decade”, as has the intensity of the winds, warns the State of the Climate in Mozambique 2024 report by the Mozambican Meteorological Institute (INAM), which Lusa saw on Monday.

INAM states in the document that although the report refers to 2024, it analysed “the decades of tropical cyclones that have hit Mozambique”, from the 1981/1982 cyclone seasons (November to April) to the current 2024/2025 season.

“It is important to emphasise that the middle of the fifth decade (2021-2030) of the climate series under analysis exceeds the second and fourth decades by four cyclones. In other words, in just five years the Mozambican coast has already been hit by ten tropical cyclones,” the annual report states.

It adds that, extending the analysis to the period from 1954 to 2024, “an increase in the formation of tropical cyclones” is observed, as well as an “increasing trend in the number of cyclones that hit Mozambique”.

The study recognises that there was a “slowdown in the intensity” of the winds in 2023, a trend that was reversed again in 2024, namely with tropical cyclone Chido, which hit the north of the country last December, with winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour, and was the “third most intense to hit the Mozambican coast in the current decade”, after Freddy (two landfalls in 2023).

“It should be remembered that cyclonic systems are a major threat due to the combination of strong winds and heavy rainfall. However, the institute warned that lower category systems are associated with high amounts of rainfall.

Mozambique is considered one of the most severely affected by global climate change. During the rainy season, it experiences cyclical floods and tropical cyclones, as well as prolonged periods of severe drought.

In the current cyclonic season, between December and March alone, the country has already been hit by three cyclones, including the most serious, Chido. In addition to destroying thousands of homes and infrastructure, Chido caused around 175 deaths in the north and centre of the country.

The INAM report emphasises that “one consequence of climate change is the increasingly frequent occurrence of extreme weather events”, including intense and prolonged droughts, storms and tropical cyclones, advocating early warning systems as an “urgent and necessary solution”.

“These anomalies highlight the growing challenges of predicting climate systems in the country, requiring a robust scientific analysis of this paradox and the development of coordinated actions to mitigate its impacts,” said NAM’s director-general, Adérito Aramuge, in his message in the report.

According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), extreme events, such as cyclones and storms, caused at least 1,016 deaths in Mozambique between 2019 and 2023, affecting around 4.9 million people.

Source: Lusa