Chapala Slams Yemen: First Hurricane-Strength Cyclone on Record

[phantom power]

Residents of southern Yemen are assessing the damage after Cyclone Chapala brought dramatic flooding to the region on Monday night into Tuesday. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Chapala made landfall near 14.1°N, 48.65°E between 01Z and 02Z Wednesday (4:00 - 5:00 am local time, or 8:00 – 9:00 pm Tuesday EST). This location is about 40 miles southwest of the coastal city of Mukalla (Al Mukalla), which was slammed by Chapala’s right-hand eyewall and some of its heaviest rains. Infrared satellite imagery shows a pronounced burst of convection (showers and thunderstorms) near and just west of Mukalla as Chapala made landfall.

With Yemen plagued by civil war, it is difficult to know how extensive the damage from Chapala has been. Photos and video emerging on social media from Mukalla show major flooding, with several feet of water cascading through streets and out of the banks of a canal that runs through the heart of the city. Independent Yemen-based journalist Iona Craig reported a preliminary total of 25 injuries and 21 people missing. No fatalities have been reported thus far--an encouraging sign, although it is still very early in the process of damage assessment. “The damage is enormous,” Fahd Kafain, Yemen’s minister of fisheries, told AFP. The mountain valleys of the Hadramout region have experienced dramatic runoff from Chapala’s rains (see embedded YouTube clip below). Hadramout suffered more than 200 fatalities related to the 2008 Yemen cyclone. The impact of Chapala will undoubtedly hamper the already-difficult tasks facing humanitarian relief agencies in Yemen. Storm surge expert Hal Needham has a blog post this morning on Chapala’s landfall, including background on how topography helped tamp down the potential storm surge along the Yemen coastline.

[haikugal]

1. I hope everyone stays safe...

That said, the desert will bloom and put on quite a show!

[ellenrr]

2. Yemen, Slammed by Cyclone Chapala, Faces Locust Plague Risk for Months

No joke!

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in its routine monthly Desert Locust Bulletin issued Tuesday, said heavy rains from Cyclone Chapala "are likely to result in favourable ecological conditions" for the growth of desert locusts in the central part of the country. The bulletin warned those conditions "could last well into next spring."

FAO says a locust swarm the size of New York City eats as much food in one day as the entire combined population of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey (about 40 million people).

According to the New Agriculturalist, Yemen was importing 75 percent of its food as of 2010, in large part because cultivation of more profitable qat leaves has taken up a much larger proportion of the country's arable land. Nonetheless, Yemen can hardly afford to have its homegrown crops devoured.

http://www.weather.com/news/news/yemen-locust-plague-risk-cyclone-chapala

[ellenrr]

3. Iconic Dragonsblood Tree on island of Socotra, near Yemen, also in path of cyclone

As Cyclone Chapala - a historically unique cyclone to land in this region - hits Yemen, I learn this about the island of Socotra near Yemen:

The iconic Dragonsblood Tree grows only on Socotra. Many species of plants and animals are found on this island only, including the Frankincense Tree, the Cucumber Tree and Desert Rose.
"If they are lost here, they are lost forever."
The Dragonsblood Tree, whose resin was used in ancient times as a dye, tooth­paste, astrin­gent and rheuma­tism med­i­cine, is already under threat due to climate change.

Will Cyclone Chapala, itself a product of climate change, be the end of the Dragonsblood Tree?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Dracaena_cinnabari

Stradivarius used dragon's blood resin (which is said to be a mixture of turpentine and dragons blood sap) to give his violins their amazing ...