Tropical Cyclone Freddy: Extremely rare and long-lived storm

Tropical Cyclone Freddy is expected to make landfall in Madagascar as a dangerous category 4 system.

Freddy is churning away in the Indian Ocean, currently passing north of Mauritius and Réunion on Monday 20th February, before heading onward to Madagascar, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

For Madagascar, this comes just two weeks after Tropical Cyclone Cheneso caused devastation and 30 fatalities, with Freddy due to strike Tuesday evening, 21st February. Click to see on the WindRadar.

Tropical Cyclone Freddy formed north of Australia on February 6th and has since tracked westwards across the Indian Ocean over its two-week life span so far.

Freddy is officially the Southern Hemisphere’s strongest tropical cyclone on record based on its Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE).

The storm is also likely to be only one of three cyclones to ever form east of 90°E and impact Madagascar.