February 19, 2022 - Tropical Cyclone Emnati

Emnati

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