Mogadishu Braces itself for a Severe Weather Beating

The strongest tropical cyclone ever measured in the northern Indian Ocean has made landfall in eastern Africa, where it is poised to drop two years’ worth of rain in the next two days. Tropical Cyclone Gati made landfall in Somalia on Sunday with sustained winds of around 105 mph. It’s the first recorded instance of a hurricane-strength system hitting the country. At one point before landfall, Gati’s winds were measured at 115 mph. Its intensification from about 40 mph to 115 mph was “the largest 12-hour increase on record for a tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean,” according to Sam Lillo, a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Physical Sciences Laboratory. Northern Somalia usually gets about 4 inches of rain per year; data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show Gati could bring 8 inches over the next two days — “two years’ worth of rainfall in just two days,” Holthaus said. Some isolated areas could see even more than that.

SOURCE: NPR