Intense cyclone Freddy is charting a course across the Indian Ocean that forecasters have reportedly not seen since the turn of the century, and the powerful cyclone could bring significant impacts to Mauritius in the new few days.
Powerful Tropical Cyclone Freddy, a long-lived storm that has been charting westward across the Indian Ocean for more than a week after forming near Indonesia, is dangerously approaching Mauritius.
In the afternoon of Saturday 18 February 2023, the island’s Met Office issued a ‘Cyclone Warning Class I’ and Class II warning for Rodrigues.
“Latest satellite observations indicate that intense tropical cyclone Freddy maintains its trajectory towards the west southwest but has slightly slowed down in the last few hours. The estimated central pressure of the intense tropical cyclone is around 940 hPa and the estimated wind gust is 230km/h near its centre,” Mauritius Met said.
With such gusts, Freddy is increasingly being compared to Hollanda (1994) and Dina (2002) – which caused significant damages on the island.
At 4pm on Saturday, Freddy was centred at about 1330 km to the east-north-east of Mauritius near latitude 16.1 degrees south and longitude 69.4 degrees east. It is moving in a west south westerly direction at a speed of about 20 km/h.
On this trajecory, Freddy is a major threat to Mauritius.
“Weather will be partly cloudy with few showers mainly to the East, the South and the Central Plateau tonight. Wind will blow from the southeast at a speed of about 20 km/h,” the Met Office said.
The Met Office has urged the public in Mauritius to take preliminary precautions.
The next Met bulletin will be issued at around 10.10pm.
Source: Mauritius Met Office
