Cyclone Freddy, which struck in 2023, is longest on record at 36 days: UN

GENEVA – Cyclone Freddy, which crossed the entire southern Indian Ocean before wreaking devastation on south-eastern Africa in 2023, was the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded at 36 days, the United Nations confirmed on July 2.

A panel of experts has been poring over the data surrounding the storm since its remarkable journey in February and March 2023.

The UN weather and climate agency concluded it had indeed broken the previous record.

The extreme-weather evaluation committee “recognised Tropical Cyclone Freddy’s duration of 36 days at tropical storm status or higher as the new world record for the longest tropical cyclone duration”, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in a statement.

It therefore overtakes Tropical Cyclone John, which barrelled across the North Pacific Ocean in 1994 and held tropical storm status or higher for a combined duration of 714 hours, or 29.75 days.

However, Tropical Cyclone John remains the tropical storm which travelled the farthest distance, covering 13,159km, while Tropical Cyclone Freddy travelled 12,785km.

“Freddy was a remarkable tropical cyclone, not only for its longevity but also for its ability to survive multiple land interactions, which unfortunately had significant consequences for south-east African populations,” said panel member Chris Velden, a tropical cyclone and satellite expert from the University of Wisconsin in the US.

The WMO did not make a direct link between the tropical cyclone’s exceptional longevity and climate change caused by human activity.

But on its page dedicated to tropical cyclones, it stresses that climate change is linked “not only to an increased likelihood of major hurricanes, but also to direct increases in their destructive power”.

Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique hit

Tropical Cyclone Freddy caused major human and economic losses in the worst-affected countries due to its prolonged passage near and over land, the WMO said.

The cyclone developed off north Australia and became a named storm on Feb 6.

It made landfall in Madagascar on Feb 21, crossing the island before reaching Mozambique on Feb 24, claiming lives in both countries.

It tracked over Mozambique and Zimbabwe, bringing heavy rain and flooding.

It then looped back towards the coast, regained strength and hit Madagascar again before heading back over Mozambique and Malawi, where floods and mudslides swept away homes, roads and bridges.

It ultimately dissipated, as tropical storms derive their power from warm water and therefore weaken over land.

More than 1,200 people were reported dead or missing and more than 2,100 were injured in Malawi, said the WMO. The storm struck as the country battled a serious cholera outbreak.

In Mozambique, more than 1.3 million people were affected, with more than 180 deaths.

In Madagascar, nearly 200,000 people were affected by the first and second landfall, the WMO said.

The damage caused by the storm is estimated at US$481 million (S$653 million), according to African Risk Capacity, a specialised agency of the African Union.

Value of early warnings

The WMO said that without advance warnings of the incoming danger, “the casualty toll would have been even higher”.

The agency wants to have everyone on the planet covered by first-class early warning systems for incoming weather hazards within the next five years.

“WMO is committed to working with our partners to achieve this and tackle extreme weather- and climate change-related risks – one of the biggest challenges of our times,” said the organisation’s tropical cyclone programme scientific officer Anne-Claire Fontan.

Tropical Cyclone Freddy will now go into the WMO’s World Weather and Climate Extremes Archive, which contains a variety of records, including those for temperature, air pressure, rainfall, wind speed, hail and lightning.

For each potential new record, a panel of world-leading experts in that field is assembled – in this case, 12 based in the US, Canada, France, Australia, Spain and Hong Kong.

The extremes presented for adjudication for the archive are “snapshots” of the current climate, said Dr Randall Cerveny, who heads the archive. “It is possible, and indeed likely, that greater extremes will occur in the future.” AFP