From the archive
Tropical cyclone “Ando”
by: J. Kerkmann (EUMETSAT)
The Tropical Cyclone season 2001 in the Southern Indian Ocean started early on 2
January 2001 when Tropical Cyclone "Ando" was born at about 11S and 61E. This
is approximately 660 nautical miles east of the northern tip of Madagascar. It is in the
area of the Southern Intertropical Convergence Zone, which, at the start of the year,
was positioned between the Equator and 10S. In the beginning, Ando moved to the
south-west, towards the central part of Madagascar. The system rapidly intensified as
it tracked beneath the subtropical ridge. Luckily, on 5 January 2001, Ando turned to a
more southerly direction, moving at 8-10 knots, so that it passed right between
Madagascar and the island of Reunion, at a distance of only 130 nautical miles from
La Reunion.
If Ando had hit one of the islands it would have most probably caused severe damage.
Its intensity can be seen from the (above) Meteosat-5 visible (infrared) satellite image.
Ando reached its maximum intensity on 6 January with a central pressure of less than
930 hPa (Tropical Cyclone category 5), wind maxima of 225 km/h and gusts up to
270 km/h, as reported in the warning of the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre located on
Guam Island. Maximum reported significant wave height was 20 feet.
The satellite image depicts a well-organised symmetric storm system with a
concentric eye of about 40 km and intense, solid core convection. Further features of
Ando, as depicted by animated water vapour images and QuikSCAT data, include a
symmetric wind field with 35-knot wind radius extending to about 150 nautical miles
and an impressive high-level outflow over the storm system. One day later, on 7
January 2001, Ando started weakening caused by a quasi-stationary longwave trough
situated over South Africa. It finally disappeared on 11 January 2001 in the area
south-east of Southern Madagascar.
Meteosat-5, operating at 63°E under EUMETSAT’s Indian Ocean Data Coverage
service, played a key role in tracking and predicting the path of Ando. The service
was recently extended to continue until the end of 2003.