Cyclone Enawo

Intense Tropical Cyclone Enawo

Intense tropical cyclone (SWIO scale)
Category 4 (Saffir–Simpson scale)
Enawo at peak intensity just before landfall in Madagascar on 7 March
Formed	2 March 2017
Dissipated	11 March 2017
(Post-tropical after 9 March)
Highest winds	10-minute sustained: 205 km/h (125 mph) 1-minute sustained: 230 km/h (145 mph)
Lowest pressure	932 hPa (mbar); 27.52 inHg
Fatalities	81 total, 18 missing
Damage	≥ $20 million (2017 USD)
Areas affected	Madagascar, Réunion
Part of the 2016–17 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season

Intense Tropical Cyclone Enawo was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike Madagascar since Gafilo in 2004, which killed at least 81 people of the country in March 2017. Forming as a moderate tropical storm on 3 March, Enawo initially drifted and intensified slowly. It strengthened into a tropical cyclone on 5 March and further an intense tropical cyclone on 6 March. Enawo made landfall over Sava Region on 7 March just after reaching peak intensity, and it emerged back into the Indian Ocean as a post-tropical depression late on 9 March. Fifteen municipalities (out of 31) are severely affected in the two most affected districts of Antalaha and Maroantsetra.

A monsoon trough started to persist west of Diego Garcia in late February 2017 as the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) over the Indian Ocean grew more noticeable. On 2 March, a zone of disturbed weather formed within the area, although it was initially difficult to define a clear centre; later, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert for the improving low-level structure and favourable environmental conditions. Only six hours after the system about 820 km (510 mi) north of Mauritius intensifying to a tropical disturbance, Météo-France upgraded it to a moderate tropical storm at 06:00 UTC on 3 March with the name Enawo from the Mauritius Meteorological Services, because of the recent ASCAT-B data suggesting gale-force winds. The JTWC also began to issue tropical cyclone warnings on Enawo. Since the afternoon, Enawo started to significantly slow down with the weakening of the tropical ridge that drove the track southwards. Due to easterly vertical wind shear, the centre was located in the eastern part of deep convection.