Click here to launch an interactive online version of this notebook:

Cyclone Idai in Mozambique (3/14/2019 18UTC landfall)

Selected because: tragic consequences

GFS analyses at 0.5 degree resolution (winds and heights at 850mb), column water vapor, and IR cloud imagery.

Notebook from the Earthcube-supported DRILSDOWN project¶

This is a DRILSDOWN project notebook, capturing images from an IDV analysis. To reproduce or operate this Jupyter notebook, you need to have installed The IDV, Anaconda, and set up a few necessary things for the DRILSDOWN package, as explained at https://unidata.github.io/drilsdown/quickstart

Sections within this notebook¶

The story, with Web and journalism links
The meteorology: large-scale 2D flow evolution
The meteorology: analyses of 3D fields

The story, with Web and journalism links:

Terrible tragedy in Mozambique

</ul>

The meteorology, with IDV images:

Trade surge 2/25-2/28 pushes air with CWV>50mm (envelope for tropical convection) over Madagascar.
Moist airmass in Madagascar channel spins up coastal cyclone 3/3, which drifts inland
Weak recirculation brings it back offshore
Slight midlatitude pulse on 3/12 helps it intensify, then it landfalls as Cat 3

</ul>

[1]:

%reload_ext ipython_IDV

850 hPa Z and winds, and PW with 50mm emphasized¶

Much earlier: quiescent basin, but NH trade surge begins¶

[3]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Feb 21, weeks ahead'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_6_0.png

[6]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Northern trade surge crosses equator at west, southern one appears'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_7_0.png

[19]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Souther surge approaches Madagascar, northern surge south of Sri Lanka'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_8_0.png

[8]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Fateful airmass crosses Madagascar, while eastern cyclone forms'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_9_0.png

[9]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Swirl in Mozambique channel; mid-ocean cyclone matures'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_10_0.png

[10]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'First landfall 3/3'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_11_0.png

[11]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Drifting around over Africa'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_12_0.png

[13]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Back in the Channel. IR cloud data now: Note relevance of 50mm (dark blue)'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_13_0.png

[14]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'A slight midlatitude pulse. Again note relevance of 50mm (dark blue)'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_14_0.png

[15]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Wicked eye. Bad news.'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_15_0.png

[16]:

%make_image -capture legend -caption 'Landfall'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_16_0.png

[17]:

# Moving image
%make_movie -capture legend -caption 'Whole sequence: 3 weeks'

../../_images/examples_Weather_Event_Case_Study_Mozambique_Cyclone_Idai_2019_Feb-Mar_18_0.png

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## The meteorology: analyses of 3D fields, etc.

Note: Nothing especially 3D about all this.

[18]:

!date

Tue Mar 19 19:16:35 EDT 2019

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