Cyclone Hidaya to slam into Tanzania south of Dar es Salaam; Ruto puts Kenya on alert
- May 4, 2024
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Cyclone Hidaya to slam into Tanzania south of Dar es Salaam; Ruto puts Kenya on alert
Subject: Geography
Sec: Climatology
Context:
- Cyclone Hidaya (‘Guidance’ in Arabic and ‘Gift’ in Swahili) is expected to hit the Tanzanian coast near Dar es Salaam from the Indian Ocean on May 4, 2024.
- Places affected: The coast of Mtwara, Lindi, Pwani, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Morogoro, and the islands of Unguja and Pemba. All are part of Tanzania.
Details:
- The cyclone developed over the South Indian Ocean and has been named by the French meteorological service, Meteo France’s centre in the Indian Ocean French Overseas Department of La Reunion.
- East Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, and Burundi, has already experienced significant flooding since March, resulting in 350 deaths and widespread property damage.
Why ‘Kenya’ is considered safe from tropical cyclones?
- Traditionally, Kenya has been considered safe from the direct impact of cyclones due to its geographic location near the equator.
- Tropical cyclones typically form at latitudes between 5° and 30° North or South of the equator, and Kenya is situated within Latitude 4° North and South.
- Tropical cyclones are difficult to form over a region within 5 degrees of latitude from the Equator because the Coriolis force there is too small to generate a vortex.
- This conventional safety from cyclones might no longer hold, as the country faces the potential impact of Cyclone Hidaya. This would mark the first time Kenya experienced a cyclone.
Other conditions for the formation of Tropical Cyclone:
- Large sea surface with a temperature higher than 27° C
- Presence of the Coriolis force
- Small differences in the vertical wind speed
- A pre-existing weak- low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation
- Upper divergence above the sea level system.
Why tropical cyclones don’t form near or cross Equator?
- This is because of the lack of the Coriolis force. What is that? It is an apparent force caused by the rotation of the Earth. It is named after French mathematician Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis who investigated energy in rotating systems
Coriolis Effect:
- Earth’s circumference is largest at the equator. This means anything standing on the equator is moving faster eastward than anything lying away from the equator — anything on the equator is traveling a greater distance than anything north or south on Earth’s surface in the same amount of time.
- If air moves north from the equator, it will also still flow quickly eastward compared with its new surroundings. This means air traveling north from the equator will appear to veer right. In contrast, air flowing south from the equator will appear to stray left.
- This phenomenon, known as the Coriolis effect, helps control the direction in which tropical cyclones spin. In the Northern Hemisphere, rightward-turning air will create a counterclockwise spinning motion, and the opposite will occur in the Southern Hemisphere.
Kenya:
- A coastal country in East Africa, named after Mount Kenya.
- Capital- Nairobi
- Its oldest and second largest city is the major port city of Mombasa, situated on Mombasa Island in the Indian Ocean and the surrounding mainland.
- Bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast.
Tanzania:
- A country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region.
- Capital- Dodoma
- Largest city- Dar es Salaam
- Bordered by Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.
- Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania.
Source: DTE