May 16, 2023 - Mocha Makes Landfall in Myanmar'

Mocha makes landfall
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As Cyclone Mocha approached Myanmar on May 14, 2023, the storm became
one of the strongest cyclones ever seen in the North Indian Ocean,
packing catastrophic maximum sustained winds of 175 miles (280
kilometers) per hour. These wind speeds place it as a Category 5 storm
on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and tied it with Cyclone
Fani on May 2019 as the strongest tropical cyclone ever seen in that
region, according to Yale Climate Connection.

Fortunately, the storm weakened slightly during the final hours of its
approach to landfall, but Tropical Storm Mocha retained extremely high
winds when it crossed onto land early on May 14, striking about 10
miles northwest of the region capital of Sittwe, in Rahkine State,
Myanmar. Just before landfall, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
advised that maximum sustained winds were 155 mph (249.5 km/h), or a
Category 4 storm. Yale Climate Connection notes that this also makes
Mocha tied as the “second-strongest cyclone at landfall in the in the
North Indian Ocean in the JTWC database. The only stronger landfalling
storm in their records—and the only Cat 5 landfall—was the 1999 Odisha
Cyclone of October 1999, whose catastrophic hit on India killed 9,843
people”.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s
Aqua satellite captured a true-color image of the cyclone at 07:15
Universal Time (1:45 p.m. local time) on May 14, 2023, as the storm
neared landfall. The small cloud-filled eye sits just northwest of
Sittwe while the convective bands bring strong winds and rain to
Bangladesh (northwest) as well as far south and inland in Myanmar.

Early reports suggest the storm caused widespread damage in Sittwe, the
state capital of Rakhine, with local news sources reporting flooded
streets, downed trees and power lines, and roofs torn from homes. The
evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from vulnerable areas in
both Bangladesh and Myanmar in advance of the storm may have helped
limit casualties, according to some news reports. The worst of the
storm surge also missed low-lying refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar that
many observers feared were vulnerable.

According to an update from the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) on May 14, “Early reports suggest
the damage is extensive and needs among already vulnerable communities,
particularly displaced people, will be high,”. On May 15, ReliefWeb
reported that, in Myanmar there have been five fatalities and more than
700 injuries reported. They also note severe damage to the Royhinga
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps as well as to houses in
western Rakhine. The ReliefWeb update also notes that in Bangladesh, “a
total of 414,170 people and 23,027 livestock were evacuated in 7,040
shelters in 14 coastal districts. Significant damage to thousands of
refugee shelters and key facilities in camps and host communities in
Cox’s Bazar district are reported but no loss of lives”.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 5/15/2023
Resolutions: 1km (493.1 KB), 500m (1.5 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=2023-05-16

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