Tropical Cyclone Gezani has spared Mozambique after veering parallel to the southern province of Inhambane before drifting back into the Indian Ocean, the country’s meteorological authorities said on Saturday.
Speaking in Maputo, National Meteorology Institute (INAM) director-general Aderito Aramuge said that forecasters had earlier warned the system could lash coastal parts of Inhambane.
In the event, the cyclone skirted the shoreline without making landfall, blunting much of its potential impact. The damaging winds initially feared on the mainland largely failed to materialise.
On Sunday, Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services Department (MSD) said the system is expected to drift north-eastwards until Monday morning, weakening into a strong tropical storm.
It is then forecast to turn south again from Tuesday while steadily losing strength, before finally shedding its tropical characteristics around Thursday as it moves over cooler waters. The MSD said:
“Tropical cyclone GEZANI continues its crossing of the southern Mozambique Channel and is now located nearly 400 km from the southwest coast of Madagascar.
“GEZANI is expected to move northeast until Monday morning, weakening to a strong tropical storm.
“However, it could temporarily re-intensify into a tropical cyclone as it passes closest to the Malagasy coast on Monday evening, at an estimated distance of between 50 and 150 km, according to the latest forecasts.
“The system is then expected to move south again from Tuesday while gradually weakening.
“It could eventually lose its tropical characteristics around Thursday as it moves over cooler waters.”
Although the cyclone never made landfall in Mozambique, it still proved deadly. Preliminary reports from Mozambique indicate at least four people were killed, struck by falling trees and lightning as the system brushed past the coast.
The fatalities followed a far heavier toll in Madagascar, where the storm ripped across the island a day earlier, leaving at least 41 dead and carving a trail of destruction in its wake.
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