Tropical Cyclone Kenneth Made Catastrophic, Unprecedented Landfall in Northern Mozambique

(MORE: Impacts From Tropical Cyclone Kenneth)

Homes have been damaged and significant power outages have been reported in northern Mozambique.

Kenneth will meander over northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province, where it poses a rainfall flood danger due its slow movement.

An estimated 30 inches of rain has already fallen as of midday Friday along part of the northern Mozambique coast with widespread areas receiving more than 5 inches and rain continues to fall. Some locations may receive 50 percent or more of their typical annual rainfall in a matter of days.

Kenneth Recap

Kenneth rapidly intensified from a Category 1- to a Category 4-equivalent tropical cyclone up until almost landfall between April 24-25.

Kenneth was the strongest cyclone strike in this part of Mozambique in recent memory. There is no record of a hurricane-strength tropical cyclone in Cabo Delgado Province in NOAA's historical database.

(IN-DEPTH: Kenneth is a Rare Southern African Cyclone)

Kenneth made landfall north of Pemba around 4:15 p.m. local time Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds estimated about 140 mph by the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). Pemba has a population of about 200,000, roughly the population of Birmingham, Alabama and is located roughly 600 miles northeast of Beira, which took the brunt of Tropical Cyclone Idai several weeks ago.

Comoro Islands Slammed

Kenneth's eyewall slammed the Comoro Islands, an archipelago with a population of nearly 1 million people between the African mainland and Madagascar, early Wednesday with wind-driven rainfall, storm surge and wind gusts as high as 145 mph.

Motorists were advised to stay off roads to allow emergency personnel to reach damaged areas.

Comoran media reported airports and schools were closed ahead of Kenneth's arrival Wednesday.

Tropical Cyclone History in Comoros and Mozambique

The Comoro Islands have little experience with tropical cyclones since the islands lie very close to the equator, between 11 and 13 degrees south latitude. According to EM-DAT, the Comoros have endured only three damaging tropical cyclones since 1983. The deadliest and most destructive was Tropical Cyclone Elinah, which passed through the islands as a tropical storm with 45- to 50-mph winds on Jan. 11, 1983, killing 33 people and causing $23 million in damages. All 33 deaths occurred when a huge wave swept 40 people on the island of Anjouan into the water.

The last time a hurricane-strength tropical cyclone affected the islands was on Feb. 17, 1996, when Category 1 Doloresse passed about 40 miles to the west of the northern Comoros Islands.

Tropical Cyclone Kenneth is only the third satellite-era system to evolve to a moderate tropical storm stage or higher in the area north of the Mozambique Channel, according to Météo-France. The two other systems, Elinah in 1983 and Doloresse in 1996, did not reach the African coast.

"Tropical Cyclone Kenneth therefore threatens an area where the population is not used to cyclones," noted a ReliefWeb update.

The Aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Idai

Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall on March 14 as a Category 2 storm with 110-mph winds just north of Beira, Mozambique (population 530,000), near the time of high tide, driving a devastating storm surge into the city. Idai also caused enormous wind damage, ripping off hundreds of roofs in Mozambique’s fourth-largest city. Since the cyclone was large and moving slowly at landfall, near 6 mph, it was a prodigious rainmaker, with satellite-estimated rainfall amounts in excess of 2 feet in portions of central Mozambique.

The official death toll for Idai on April 23 stood at 1,007, with 602 killed in Mozambique, 344 in Zimbabwe, 60 in Malawi and one in Madagascar. Total economic damages to infrastructure in Mozambique alone were estimated at $1 billion (over 8 percent of their gross domestic product) – their most expensive natural disaster in history. The World Bank estimated that combined damages to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi would exceed $2 billion.

As of April 22, ReliefWeb reported that 73,000 people in Mozambique were living in shelters, and 1.85 million people were in need of assistance. About 6,600 cases of cholera had been reported, including at least seven deaths, but the number of cases was on the decline thanks to a successful vaccination effort.

Portions of this article were originally from Weather Underground's Category 6 blog, written by meteorologists Dr. Jeff Masters and Bob Henson.