Recent Severe Cyclone Sagar set a few records last week by becoming the westernmost ever cyclone within the Indian Ocean basin. The cyclone was also the strongest to ever hit Somalia after traversing the entire east-west length of the hot Gulf of Aden.
Despite being locked in on three sides by desert, the Gulf of Aden is a very warm body of water. So despite very dry surroundings, Cyclone Sagar strengthened as it tracked west over 30-32C (86-90F) waters in a low shear environment scraping Yemen to the north before slamming into Somalia and Djibouti with significant impacts extending in Eritrea and Ethiopia. With 3 years of drought, lack of vegetation and rock hard ground, the heavy rains had nowhere to go but run off, creating destructive flash flooding.
Flooding in Ethiopia's eastern Somali regional state displaces 188,000 people after tropical cyclone Sagar hit parts of East Africa region https://t.co/IO3QX3pkVP pic.twitter.com/3ntEgjPUEu
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) May 23, 2018
#Ethiopia Heavy rainfall, winds and #flooding caused by Tropical #CycloneSagar that made landfall on 20 May have #displaced 54,000 people in northern part of Somali region. Rains are expected to continue. Read more in our crisis analysis: https://t.co/qhvRomrDUJ pic.twitter.com/qvnP1MdguB
— ACAPS (@ACAPSproject) May 24, 2018
Djibouti City flooding.
Credit: Araleh DI @AralehDI
Credit: Araleh DI @AralehDI
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