Abstract
Southern Africa has, of late, been on the receiving end of severe storms that have left behind serious trails of destruction from strong winds, heavy rainfall and floods. The most recent is Tropical Cyclone Idai, one of the most intense and most powerful storms to ever hit southern Africa. Idai brought death and destruction in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in March 2019. While much attention is given to these severe storms that cover large areas and several countries, our attention has been drawn to the concurrent emergence of more localised storms that can be just as destructive as they are poorly understood, and not well integrated into early warning and response systems in the region. An analysis of these devastating storms was based on eye-witness accounts and post-event damage assessment from five sites between 2012 and 2020. Results show that some of the severe localised storms in Malawi are tornadoes. This first attempt in Malawi to characterise these emerging storms will emphasise the need for improved tornado forecasting capacity, documentation of occurrence and effects, and awareness raising on risk reduction.
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Chiotha, S.S., Kamdonyo, D.R., Likongwe, P.J. (2021). Characterisation and Analysis of Emerging Localised Severe Storms in Malawi: How Common Are Tornadoes?. In: Nhamo, G., Chapungu, L. (eds) The Increasing Risk of Floods and Tornadoes in Southern Africa. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74192-1_14
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