According to reporters in Africa, on July 1, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that Tropical Storm Freddy, which lasted for 36 days and caused significant human and economic damage in Southeast Africa from February to March 2023, is the longest storm ever recorded.
Area devastated by Storm Freddy in Blantyre, Malawi on March 14, 2023. (Photo: THX/TTXVN).
An international committee of WMO experts confirmed that Freddy maintained tropical storm status for 36 days, setting a new world record for the longest duration of a tropical storm. The WMO emphasized that Freddy has “ousted” John, a storm that formed in the North Pacific in 1994 and maintained tropical storm status for 714 hours (29.75 days). Currently, John still holds the record for the longest journey of a tropical storm at 13,159 km, while Freddy traveled 12,785 km.
Although the WMO did not point out any direct connection between the “longevity” of Freddy and human-induced climate change, it highlighted on its tropical storm page that: “climate change is not only related to the increasing likelihood of major storms, but also to a direct increase in their destructive power.”
A committee member of the WMO and a tropical storm expert at the University of Wisconsin (USA), Chris Velden, emphasized: “Freddy is a notable tropical storm, not only for its duration but also for its ability to survive multiple land interactions, which unfortunately caused significant consequences for the people in Southeast Africa.” Due to its prolonged movement near land, Freddy caused particularly severe devastation in Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique.
According to the WMO, Malawi bore the brunt of this storm’s impact, with over 1,200 people dead or missing and more than 2,100 injured. The storm occurred at a time when the country was already grappling with a severe cholera outbreak, adding further hardships for residents with heavy rains causing flooding.
In Mozambique, over 1.3 million people were affected, with more than 180 fatalities.
In Madagascar, nearly 200,000 people were impacted by this phenomenon.
The WMO noted that without the weather warnings issued by Météo-France from the regional center in Réunion (a French island in the Indian Ocean), which allowed for evacuations, preventive measures, and food preparations, the human toll would have been even heavier.
