Africa News
Rising sea temperatures shaping tropical storms in southern Africa─── 07:33 Sun, 19 Feb 2017
Johannesburg - Rising sea temperatures are shaping tropical storms in southern Africa. This is according to Wits researcher Jennifer Fitchett.
She explains that regions bordering the East, West and South Pacific are influenced by considerably more tropical cyclones each year than southern Africa.
However, studies over the past half century show that there’s been a southward shift in tropical cyclones in the region, and in particular the location of their landfall.
Like with Dineo, which swept in from the Indian Ocean, causing extensive flooding as it hit landfall in Mozambique.
Fitchett says the shift southwards, the position of the storm’s formation, and the later landfall are all because of increasing sea surface temperatures associated with global scale warming.
Meteorologist Wayne Venter also expects more storms to surface in Mozambique in the coming months.
SABC/ECR
Meteorologist Wayne Venter spoke to ECR: