Tropical Cyclone Idai Made Landfall in Mozambique With Life-Threatening Rainfall and Damaging Winds

(LATEST: Tropical Cyclone Idai Impacts)

Idai made landfall between 12:00 and 12:30 a.m. local time early Friday morning near Beira, Mozambique with winds equivalent to borderline Category 2-3 hurricane. Beira has a population of more than 530,000 (similar to Tucson, Arizona) and is prone to storm surge inundation.

Its impacts along the coast remain unknown, but RSMC-La Reunion expected a monster storm surge that could have reached as high as 6 meters or 20 feet above normally dry ground near the mouth of the Pungwe River. Other parts of the central Mozambique coast also expected a storm surge up to 10 feet above normally dry ground.

The disturbance that developed into Idai originated in Mozambique, where it caused flooding earlier this month in northern parts of the country, as well as in neighboring southern Malawi. More than 120 people have been killed in Mozambique and Malawi, making it the deadliest weather disaster of 2019. Roughly 93,000 people have been displaced in Mozambique and Malawi, according to the United Nations.

Idai then underwent rapid intensification Sunday into Monday, meaning maximum sustained winds increased by 35 mph or more in a 24-hour period. Idai's estimated maximum sustained winds topped out at 120 mph Monday, the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane.

Idai then underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, common in most stronger tropical cyclones, during which a storm's eyewall is surrounded by a second eyewall, which eventually chokes off the previous eyewall, resulting in a larger eye.

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According to a 2015 study led by storm surge expert Hal Needham, about 40 percent of Mozambique's population lives near the coast, and 25 percent of the nation's gross domestic product comes from the coastal zone.

There have been only three tropical cyclones that have made landfall in Mozambique at Category 3 intensity or stronger since the use of satellites began in 1966, according to NOAA. The last tropical cyclone to make landfall in Mozambique as a Category 1 or stronger equivalent was Dineo in mid-February 2017.