Tropical Cyclone Kalunde - Earth.com Tropical Cyclone Kalunde

With sustained winds near 64 km per hour (40 mph), Tropical Cyclone was located approximately 449 miles southeast of Diego Garcia and was moving towards the west-northwest at 7 km per hour (5 mph) as of March 5, 2003. This true-color image of the storm was acquired March 5 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite.

Intense Tropical Cyclone Kalunde was the strongest storm of the 2002–03 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season. The eleventh named storm and sixth cyclone of the season, Kalunde formed on March 4 from an area of disturbed weather east-southeast of Diego Garcia. The storm steadily strengthened and attained severe tropical storm intensity on March 6. After starting a phase of rapid deepening, Kalunde attained cyclone intensity the next day. Kalunde attained its peak intensity on March 8, as an intense tropical cyclone. It maintained its peak strength for a day; shortly thereafter, the system began to weaken. After undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle, the storm brushed Rodrigues. Shortly after doing so, Kalunde weakened into a tropical cyclone and later a severe tropical storm. Two days later, on March 16, the cyclone transitioned into an extratropical cyclone and dissipated the next day.

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

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