March 14, 2023 - Freddy fills up Lake Ihotry
Freddy fills up Lake Inhotry
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Tropical Cyclone Freddy, one of the longest-tracked tropical systems of
all times, took an unusual path across the Indian Ocean, twice dousing
Madagascar with extremely heavy rains and strong winds. Freddy struck
the central eastern shore on February 21 and exited the island on
February 22 just south of Lake Ihotry and north of the town of Toliara.
Freddy struck Mozambique on February 24, then rebounded to pound
southwestern Madagascar with intense rain of March 6 as the center spun
just offshore near Toliara.
According to the BNGRC (Bureau National de Gestion des Risques et des
Catastrophes), Freddy's return to the west coast caused 8 at least
deaths and affected 40,375 people in 8,896 households across three
regions. A total of 14,502 people have been displaced.
Freddy brought more than 10 inches of rain along its first pass across
Madagascar, with nearly that amount added to the southwestern coast as
it made an unwelcomed return. With soils already saturated by
torrential rains from Tropical Cyclone Chenesco, which stalled off the
west coast in January, Freddy’s rainfall created widespread flooding.
The storm waters also filled Lake Ihotry, a closed saline lake in a
semi-arid region in the southwestern section of the country. On March
13, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on
board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of flooded
Lake Ihotry (top image). The bottom false-color image acquired on
January 17 by the MODIS on Terra shows the same lake prior to the
passage of both Chenesco and Freddy.
This type of false color image uses infrared and visible light (MODIS
bands 7,2,1), which makes both deep water (deep blue) and shallow water
(light blue) easy to differentiate from vegetation (bright green) or
open land (tan). In the January 17 image, Lake Ihotry contains only a
small amount of deep water, with shallow water covering the eastern
portion. The southeastern coastline appears tan, suggesting very dry
conditions. While vegetation is abundant in most of the image, several
beige areas contain no vegetation at all. These are mineral-crusted
salt pans in a very arid region.
Conditions are noticeably different in the March 13 image. Lake Ihotry
is swollen more than full, covering all the dry edges visible in the
earlier image. In addition, in many areas, the salt pans have a blue
tint indicating they, too, have been drenched and flooded by the
passing storms.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 3/13/2023
Resolutions: 1km (76 KB), 500m (170.6 KB), 250m (94 KB)
Bands Used: 7.2.1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-03-14
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