Tropical Cyclone Threat to Southeast Africa

By Jim Andrews, Senior Meteorologist

Jan 18, 2012; 2:29 PM ET

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Tropical low pressure in the Mozambique Channel Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012 (Navy Research Lab Monterrey)

A tropical cyclone in the Mozambique Channel will menace the southeastern coast of Africa with potentially damaging winds and flooding rain during the latter half of the week.

Wednesday, the weather system was still fairly weak and was centered near the narrowest reach of the Mozambique Channel. Even so, it was already triggering localized flooding downpours on both sides of the Channel.

Forecast tools available to meteorologists at AccuWeather.com Wednesday showed this tropical low strengthening into a strong tropical cyclone over the southern Mozambique Channel as early as Saturday. However, timing and location of any landfall remained speculative.

The area has already seen significant adverse tropical weather this month. Tropical Cyclone Chandra made landfall in western Madagascar early in the month.

Next, Tropical Depression Dando landed in southern Mozambique near Maputo. Almost 500 people were left homeless in Maputo, the nation's capital, in the aftermath of Dando's flooding rain and damaging winds, the AP said on Wednesday.

Torrential rain triggered by Dando also reached into northeastern South Africa.

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	Extreme	Location
High	89°	Harlingen, TX
Low	5°	Chama, NM
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