James Ngoma, head of forecasting at the Meteorological Services Department (MSD), said on Friday that Tropical Cyclone Chido is expected to make landfall in Mutoko, located in northeastern Zimbabwe, on Monday from midday, going into Tuesday.
During a press briefing at the Department of Civil Protection in Harare, Ngoma said that Chido is likely to be less destructive upon reaching Mutoko than it has been in the Indian Ocean, where it is currently causing a lot of destruction. He said:
We are approximating that it will reach Zimbabwe from 16 December from around noon going into the 17th of December.
The cyclone was expected to make its first contact with land in Madagascar’s Antsiranana at 2 PM today before it starts making its way to Mozambique, then to Zimbabwe in three days.
Current position, it’s just to the northeast of Madagascar, and it’s going to touch a city called Antsiranana which is to the extreme north of Madagascar and what speed is it travelling at?
It’s moving at 20 kilometres per hour. That’s the speed at which it’s moving laterally, but it doesn’t involve the spin speed.
It’s 1,919 kilometres from Mutoko. The effects will be felt whilst it’s still in Mozambique and parts of Malawi.
Ngoma said six provinces, that is, Manicaland, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, as well as Harare Metropolitan, are currently on the watch list. He said:
All of them are in the watch category. They are not yet in the alert category. Once we move into the alert, we will remove some of the provinces and we will specify maybe even the ones that will be affected most.
I think most of us remember the Tropical Cyclone Fred which did a dance around in Zimbabwe, went to Mozambique, then ended up in Malawi and caused devastation there. So these cyclones can move in a haphazard manner, especially when they touch land.
The cyclone is likely to lose energy as it navigates through different countries and as a result it will reach Zimbabwe moving at 45 knots (83.3 kilometres per hour). Said Ngoma:
So the current wind speeds that it’s spinning at is between 210 to 220 kilometres per hour. That is whilst it’s still close to Madagascar.
And with these wind speeds, the destruction is unimaginable. You get trees being pulled out, roofs being blown off, waters being carried from the ocean onto land, and disasters are unproportional.
But when it reaches Zimbabwe, it’s projected to be moving at about 45 kilometres to about 50 kilometres per hour.
But this might change. So we’ll continue to monitor this and advise you better as the weekend progresses.
And from there, we’ll know how it’s been deflected or what effects that landmass has had on the cyclone.
And then we can predict better in terms of rainfall, in terms of direction, in terms of whichever path it will take.
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