The United Nations warned Friday that Cyclone Freddy is on track to surpass the record for the longest cyclone on record, as the deadly storm threatens to hit Mozambique again.
“Freddy continues its incredible and dangerous journey,” Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), told reporters in Geneva.
Freddy formed near the northern coast of Australia and was classified a tropical storm on February 6.
The current record for duration is held by Typhoon John, which lasted 31 days in 1994, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
For the past 33 days, Freddy has been a designated tropical storm.
Once the storm has passed, a WMO panel of climate extremes experts will review all of the data to determine whether a new record has been set. According to Nullis, the process could take many months.
Freddy has repeatedly weakened, briefly losing tropical storm classification.
“We will obviously have to take that into account in our assessment,” said Randall Cerveny, WMO’s rapporteur on extreme weather and climate conditions.
Freddy covered the entire southern Indian Ocean, making landfall in Madagascar on February 21 before continuing on to Mozambique on February 24.
It passed over Mozambique and Zimbabwe, bringing heavy rain and flooding.
It then returned to the coast, where it replenished moisture and power in the warm waters before returning to Madagascar.
It is presently en route to Mozambique. Freddy is forecast to make landfall in Zambezia’s northern province Friday night or Saturday morning.
“There will be very damaging winds, a very dangerous storm surge over land, and extreme rainfall over large areas, not only in Mozambique but in northeastern Zimbabwe, southeastern Zambia, and Malawi,” the WMO spokeswoman said.
Expected rainfall totals are in the range of 200-300 millimeters, but locally they could be more than 400-500 mm.
“This is more than double the usual monthly rainfall and is in addition to the previous rainfall caused by Freddy,” Nullis said.
The last cyclones to cross the entire southern Indian Ocean were tropical cyclones Leon-Eline and Hudah in 2000.