Natural Disasters 2023: A world first, every tropical ocean saw a Category 5 storm in 2023. Seven (7) STORMS in total. Climate Change or God’s Wrath?
Dennis Mersereau September 8, 2023 The Weather Network
For the first time since weather satellites began peering at our skies from above, each of the world’s warm oceans have seen a scale-topping tropical cyclone so far in 2023.
While we’d typically see at least one tropical system somewhere on Earth achieve this infamous milestone each year, we’ve never seen each of the world’s tropical ocean basins pump out a scale-topping storm all within the same year.
Many of the planet’s apex storms so far this year have been noteworthy for their ferocity, longevity, and the sheer speed at which they intensified. (Increasing in ‘Intensity’ and ‘Frequency’ … like ‘labor pains.’)
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Different oceans, different names, but all the same storms
The Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans are broken down into ‘basins’ to make it easier to keep track of tropical systems throughout the year. There are seven major tropical basins split between the three oceans. All low-pressure systems with tropical characteristics are called ‘tropical cyclones’, but each stage of a storm’s formation earns a different name around the world based on its maximum sustained winds.
Tropical cyclones that grow quite strong are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific, typhoons in the west Pacific near Asia, and they’re simply just cyclones everywhere else.
They’re all the same storm even if they have different names, and each basin so far in 2023 has produced a powerful hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone with the equivalent strength of a scale-topping Category 5 hurricane.
Cyclone Freddy was the longest-lived storm on record
The first Category 5 tropical cyclone of 2023 was a deadly powerhouse of a storm in the Indian Ocean that’s likely to secure a spot in record books as the longest-lived tropical cyclone ever observed.
Cyclone Freddy formed off the northwestern coast of Australia on February 6, continuing west across the entire Indian Ocean for more than a month.
The storm grew into a formidable force as it traversed the sunbaked waters, peaking in strength near the central Indian Ocean several times, once with sustained winds as high as 270 km/h.
Freddy rapidly weakened before making landfall on the mountainous island-nation of Madagascar, but it regrouped after crossing the island and made landfall on the African mainland in nearby Mozambique.
A calm environment allowed Cyclone Freddy to stall out across the region, forcing the storm to loop back toward Madagascar before once again returning to Mozambique, where it finally fizzled out on March 14.
The cyclone’s drenching rains brought catastrophic flooding to the region, killing more than 1,000 people in Malawi alone, Reuters reported a month after the storm ended.
Meteorologists tracked Cyclone Freddy for five weeks and two days, making it the longest-lived tropical cyclone on record. The storm beat out the previous record-holder, set by Hurricane John’s 31-day run across the eastern Pacific in 1994.
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Hurricanes Jova and Lee exploded just hours apart
Two hurricanes rapidly intensified on either side of North America over the course of two days in September.
Jova formed far off the western coast of Mexico where it encountered very warm waters over the eastern Pacific Ocean. The system intensified from a tropical storm with 110 km/h winds on September 5, 2023, into a Category 5 hurricane with 260 km/h just 24 hours later.
The following day, Hurricane Lee over in the Atlantic Ocean accomplished a similar feat. Lee rapidly grew its maximum sustained winds from 130 km/h to 270 km/h over a 24-hour period, one of the fastest bouts of intensification ever observed over the Atlantic.
Jova was the first scale-topping hurricane to form in the eastern Pacific Ocean since 2018, while Lee continued the Atlantic basin’s streak of producing intense hurricanes in recent years. Hurricane Lee was the eighth Category 5 storm to form in the Atlantic since 2016.
Mawar grew into the year’s strongest tropical cyclone
But the year’s strongest tropical system developed in the western Pacific Ocean back in May. Super Typhoon Mawar swiftly grew into a monstrous Category 5 equivalent storm when it peaked with maximum winds measuring as high as 295 km/h.
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Mawar, also known as Betty in The Philippines, where the country’s weather bureau uses its own naming system, narrowly missed the U.S. territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, where structural damage and power outages occurred.
Thankfully, Mawar avoided making any direct landfalls, only bringing heavy rain and rough surf to The Philippines and Japan as it swept through the region.
Three more storms round out 2023’s historic feat
The hot waters around Oceania gave rise to another Category 5 cyclone at the end of February. Cyclone Kevin’s intense winds briefly reached the top of the scale after traversing the islands of Vanuatu. Kevin formed around the same time as Cyclone Judy, another powerful storm that followed almost the same track as Kevin just a few days earlier.
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Waters off the northwestern coast of Australia gave birth to another scale-topping storm two months after Freddy began its historic journey.
Cyclone Ilsa rapidly intensified off the northwest Australian coast in the middle of April as it swirled toward landfall near Port Hedland, which sits about 1,400 km north of Perth. Ilsa hit the coast with the equivalent strength of a major hurricane, but the sparse population led to minimal damage.
Cyclone Mocha rapidly intensified in the northern Indian Ocean during the middle of May. Mocha’s maximum winds of 277 km/h made the storm one of the strongest on record in this part of the world. The cyclone weakened as it swept into land, unleashing deadly floods in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Header satellite image courtesy of NOAA.
WATCH: The relationship between hurricane strength and ocean temperatures
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In His Service,
Night Watchman
Paul Rolland
Night Watchman Ministries
Make Your (7) Decision for Christ NOW!!!!!!! Time is Up!!!!!!!
Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:
The ABCs (7) of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)
- (7) Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask (7) God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.
. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).
. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).
B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that (7) Jesus Christ is who He claimed to (7) be; that He was both fully God (7) and fully man and that we are (7) saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. (7) Put your trust in Him as your (7) only hope of salvation. Become a son (7) or daughter of God by receiving Christ. (7777777) 7×7
. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).
C. Call upon His name, Confess (7) with your heart and with your lips (7) that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).
. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).
. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).
. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).
. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).
. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).
. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).
. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).
. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).
True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:
Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.