February 19, 2022 - Tropical Cyclone Emnati

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Emnati
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Tropical Cyclone Emnati formed over the central Indian Ocean on
February 16, 2022, and immediately started on a track heading towards
the island of Madagascar. At 1500 UTC (10:00 a.m. EST) on February 18,
the storm packed maximum sustained winds of about 80.5 mph (138 km/h),
according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) placing it as
equivalent to a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind
Scale. It was located 474 miles (763 km) northeast of Mauritius and was
moving west-southwest.

Tropical Cyclone Emnati is expected reach a peak intensity of about 109
mph (175 km/h)—a strong Category 2 storm—as it approaches Madagascar,
then may weaken before landfall. The storm is expected to pass close to
the Mascarene Islands between February 19-20 and may make landfall on
eastern Madagascar on February 22.

If Emnati does make landfall, it will be the fourth significant storm
to strike Madagascar in 2022. Tropical Storm Ana struck the
southeastern coast on January 24, impacting 185,429 people, injured 207
people, and killed at least 38 people. It also destroyed 11,757 houses,
and damaged 26 health centers and 25 water supply systems, according to
ReliefWeb. This was followed by landfall of Tropical Cyclone Batsirai,
again on the southeastern coast, which affected 270,900 people and
killed 120 as the storm travelled across southwestward the country,
passing over the area in today’s image before moving over the
Mozambique Channel. Ten days after Tropical Cyclone Batsirai struck the
southeast coast, Tropical Storm Dumako made landfall on the northeast
coast of the country on February 15. Two people are missing, at least
5,100 people have been directly affected by that storm.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of Tropical Cyclone
Emnati on February 18. At that time, the large storm had substantial
circulation around a cloud-filled eye. Eastern Madagascar sits near the
western (left) edge of the image.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 2/18/2022
Resolutions: 1km (466.7 KB), 500m (1.3 MB), 250m (4.7 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-02-19

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