Mozambique: Germany provides €90M for coastal protection, green infrastructure - Watch
Idai.[AFP photo]
The back-to-back cyclones that have ravaged Mozambique are unprecedented in recorded history, the UN said Friday, as it planned to examine the country’s defences against extreme weather in the light of climate change.
Cyclone Kenneth, which smashed into northern Mozambique late Thursday, hit “an area where no tropical cyclone has been observed since the satellite era,” the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in a statement.
Since satellite era, #Mozambique has not had 2 such intense cyclones hit in the same season or a major storm as far north as #Kenneth. SW Indian Ocean has had 15 storms, incl 9 intense, this season, most active with 1993-1994. https://t.co/F4pbYdyj7s Photo via @CLIMATEwBORDERS pic.twitter.com/BoXJzmDoow
— WMO | OMM (@WMO) April 26, 2019
Kenneth struck barely a month after Cyclone Idai cut a path of destruction through central Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, leaving more than 1,000 dead.
“There is no record of two storms of such intensity striking Mozambique in the same season,” the WMO said, labelling Kenneth an “unprecedented tropical cyclone.”
The UN weather agency added that a fact-finding mission currently in Mozambique will in part look at the “impact of climate change and sea-level rise on Mozambique’s resilience” to extreme weather.
Climate change has made cyclones more damaging, as rising sea levels have increased the strength of storm surges, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told AFP.
Higher or more powerful waves are driven towards the shore, potentially posing a greater risk for coastal-dwelling populations.
According to WMO, the current cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean “has been exceptionally intense,” including 15 storms and nine “intense cyclones.”
That ties a record set in 1993 and 1994, the agency further said.
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