Last tropical cyclone of the year?

Tropical Cyclone Bondo, a major Category 3 storm, is battering the Seychelles Islands between Madagascar and Mozambique today. I expect Bondo will be the final major tropical cyclone of 2006, which has been an active year for intense storms world-wide. Bondo brings the tally of major (Category 3, 4 and 5) tropical cyclones to 29 for the year. The global average for such storms is 24, and the record, 30. This year has also seen 21 Category 4 and 5 cyclones, which is well above the average of 17, but quite a bit short of the record of 25. Bondo is expected to pass very close to Dzaoudzi in the Comoros Islands near 12 UTC on Friday, and is expected to pass between Madagascar and the African coast over the weekend, and possibly strike the northern Madagascar coast as a powerful Category 3 or 4 storm early next week.


Figure 1. Visible image of Tropical Cyclone Bondo taken by NASA's Terra satellite on December 20 at 0635 UTC.

I'll be back Friday with a new blog.
Jeff Masters