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At least three people have died and nearly 30,000 people have been affected by flooding after Madagascar’s first tropical storm of the season hit over the weekend.
Tropical Cyclone Fytia formed to the north-west of Madagascar over the northern Mozambique Channel on Thursday.
Fytia was forecast to bring daily rainfall totals of about 150mm where rain is heaviest, leading to a risk of flooding and landslides.
Travel disruption and school closures are likely and it is estimated that more than 40,000 homes could be flooded over the next few days. Red alerts were issued in regions in the track of the cyclone, indicating imminent danger, and mariners have been advised to seek shelter.
According to a provisional report from Madagascar’s national bureau for disaster risk management, at least three people have died and 28,368 people have been affected by flooding.
Fytia moved south-east through northern and central Madagascar on Saturday, bringing heavy rainfall, strong winds and rough sea conditions. Average wind speeds of more than 90mph have been recorded, along with gusts of up to 130mph as of Saturday, according to Météo Madagascar. As Fytia continued to move across Madagascar, it weakened into a tropical storm, though disruption will continue this week.
Meanwhile, eastern Europe has been extremely cold for much of the winter so far. However, it will turn even colder this week, with temperatures across Poland, Ukraine and Belarus set to plunge further. The latest forecast models are predicting daytime highs firmly within the negative double digits, as far west as Berlin. Yet it is the night-time lows that will be the most extreme, potentially dropping below -30C this week across Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.
The cold air will be driven by high pressure centred to the north over eastern Scandinavia and low pressure to the south, centred over western Russia. This will lead to an easterly to north-easterly flow, introducing a very cold air mass to the region. The brutal cold is being driven partly by the cold airmass, but also the existing snow cover on the ground across eastern Europe. The snow has been reflecting incoming solar radiation for several weeks. In tandem with the solar radiation, snow emits longwave radiation into the atmosphere, cooling the air directly above. Both these processes are working together, enabling temperatures to plummet across the entirety of eastern Europe.
