Cyclone Chido is expected to pass during the night from Friday to Saturday and during the day on Saturday near Mayotte. From 10 p.m., the island will be placed on red alert. While the authorities announced an event of rare violence, Météo France delivered its latest forecasts.
The night promises to be rough in Mayotte with the passage of Cyclone Chido. The department will be on red alert from 10 p.m. “The most likely scenario is a passage in the immediate vicinity of the cyclone north of Mayotte during the morning of Saturday, December 14, without excluding a direct passage over the island.“, warns Météo France.
The particularity of this intense tropical cyclone is that it is relatively small, with a zone of violent winds extending only 50 to 100km. Météo France forecasts “wind gusts of 130 to 180 km/h over a large part of the island and locally 200 km/h possible in the immediate vicinity of the center of the cyclone, particularly on the northern part of the island.”
Intense rain should also be expected, with “cumulative precipitation of around 100 to 150 mm in the south, locally 200 mm in the north, which can occur in less than 6 hours.“At sea, the waves will reach on average 6 to 9 meters outside the lagoon and between 3 to 5 meters in the lagoon, particularly between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. this Saturday.”A surge (rise in sea level) of 50 to 70 cm is possible, especially behind the cyclone and concerning the mid-day rising tide“, add the forecasters.
Météo France also warns of the possibility of the eye of the cyclone passing through Mayotte. A sudden calm will then occur, but will only last a few tens of minutes, followed by “a sudden return of violent winds in an opposite direction compared to the beginning of the episode (first south/southeast then north/northeast).“The authorities are calling on people not to leave their homes until the end of the cyclone alert.
France
