Tropical Cyclone Kenneth has continued to gain enormous strength as it barrels towards the Mozambican coastline.
Authorities in Mozambique have declared a “red alert” in Cabo Delgado province as they prepared to evacuate people from the northern region.
Reports indicate that the cyclone’s top wind speed has reached 85 kilometres (115 miles) per hour in the one-minute average scale used by the U.S., making it a Category 3 storm.
Kenneth is expected to gain even more strength before it lashes Mozambique later today (Thursday).
The cyclone is projected to make landfall north of where the deadly Cyclone Idai struck.
Jim Rouiller, chief meteorologist at Energy Weather Group in Philadelphia had this to say:
The latest satellite and high-resolution weather models suggest a devastating impact from an intense tropical cyclone for northern Mozambique.
In anticipation of the cyclone, Mozambique’s state airline cancelled all flights to the northern town of Pemba near the border with Tanzania.
Kenneth threatens the lives of 692 000 people in Mozambique’s two provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula.
61 centimetres of rainfall is predicted to fall along the cyclone’s path.
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