BELNA Severe Tropical Storm
2nd for South-West Indian Ocean 2019-2020

The Summer Season 2019-2020 for South-West Indian Ocean appears very dynamic. Two Cyclones have taken birth almost simultaneously, apart from those two for the Northern Indian Ocean. AMBALI Moderate Tropical Storm named by the Mauritius Meteorological Services (MMS) on Thursday 05 December 2019 has intensified further to Severe, Very Severe Tropical Storm and Very Intense Tropical Storm within 24 hours. The inhabitants of Rodrigues, Mauritius and Reunion Islands are obliged to stay on High ALERT as, this System is cruising dangerously South South-Westwards at a speed of (6 knots) 12 kph.

BELNA Moderate Tropical Storm which was named during last night by Météo Madagascar (MM), has also intensified rapidly into Severe Tropical Storm. It is evolving in the Mozambique Channel which is the Hot Spot of the South-West Indian Ocean Basin (SWIOB). 

The populations of Mayotte, Comoros, Madagascar and adjoining Mozambique are requested to be on the maximum ALERT, as BELNA is forecast to cause devastations (BELNA name provided by the MMS is derived from Mauritian ‘wooden roller’ used for flattening flour dough into rotis- home-made-bread).

          
[[[Forecast Bulletin - Mauritius 
WEATHER NEWS FOR MAURITIUS ISSUED AT 04H30 ON FRIDAY 06 DECEMBER 2019.

Supplemmentary information:

The moderate tropical storm AMBALI has intensified very rapidly during the night into a Very Intense Tropical Cyclone. At 04h00 this morning, AMBALI was centered  around the point 10.5' S in latitude and 62.2' E in longitude at about 610 km to the East of Agalega. It is moving in a general South-Westerly direction at about 12 km/h.

The other Tropical Depression which was evolving to the North of Madagascar has intensified into a Severe Tropical Storm during the night and has been named BELNA by the meteorological services of Madagascar. At 04h00 this morning, BELNA was centered near the point 7.4' S in latitude and 49.2' E in longitude and is still evolving to the North of Madagascar. It is moving in a general Westerly direction at about 10 km/h.
At this stage, these systems are not influencing the weather over the Mascarene islands. However, the evolution of these two systems is being closely monitored.]]] 

Keep Watch for Updates. 

PKANHYE. 09.47 Pm FRIDAY 06 DECEMBER 2019.