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1990–91 South-West Indian Ocean Cyclone Season
The 1990–91 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season was fairly quiet, although activity began early and the final named storm formed at a record late date. There were seven named storms classified by the Météo-France office (MFR) on Réunion, as well as three depressions; an additional depression was classified by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), an unofficial warning agency. The JTWC tracked storms in both September and October, although neither affected land. In late November, another short-lived depression formed in the northeastern portion of the basin. Activity remained minimal until January, when Tropical Storm Alison formed in the eastern portion of the basin. Later in the month, Cyclone Bella became the strongest storm of the season, reaching 10‑minute maximum sustained winds of . It passed near the island of Rodrigues, becoming the worst cyclone there in 20 years and killing half of the population of one endangered species. Bella also likely caused a ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyclone Bella
Intense Tropical Cyclone Bella was a destructive tropical cyclone that passed near the Mauritius outer island of Rodrigues. The second named storm of the season, Bella originated in the middle of January 1991 from a surge in the monsoon trough to the southwest of Sumatra. For several days, the system remained weak as it moved generally west-southwestward. On January 25, it intensified to tropical storm status, but Bella took three more days to intensify to tropical cyclone status, with 10 minute maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour). The cyclone attained peak intensity on January 29, officially reaching winds of . The Joint Typhoon Warning Center unofficially estimated winds of , the highest the agency estimated for any storm in the Southern Hemisphere in the year. Bella later turned to the southeast and weakened, passing about 50 km (30 mi) west of Rodrigues on January 31. The storm turned to the south-s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Meridians are imaginary semicircular lines running from pole to pole that connect points with the same longitude. The prime meridian defines 0° longitude; by convention the International Reference Meridian for the Earth passes near the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, south-east London on the island of Great Britain. Positive longitudes are east of the prime meridian, and negative ones are west. Because of the Earth's rotation, there is a close connection between longitude and time measurement. Scientifically precise local time varies with longitude: a difference of 15° longitude corresponds to a one-hour difference in local time, due to the differing position in relation to the Sun. Comparing local time to an absol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodrigues Flying Fox
The Rodrigues flying fox or Rodrigues fruit bat (''Pteropus rodricensis'') is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae, the flying foxes or fruit bats. It is endemic to Rodrigues, an island in the Indian Ocean belonging to Mauritius. Its natural habitat is tropical lowland forests. The bats are sociable, roost in large groups during the day and feed at night, squeezing the juice and flesh out of fruits. They are hunted by humans for food and their numbers have been dwindling, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the species as being "endangered". In an effort to preserve them from extinction, some bats have been caught and are being bred in various zoos around the world. Ecology It is a sociable species which lives in large groups. It can reach in weight and has a wingspan of . At night, the bats forage in dry woodland for fruit of various trees, such as tamarinds, rose-apples, mangoes, palms, and figs. Like many other fruit bats, they squeeze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ReliefWeb
ReliefWeb (RW) is a humanitarian information portal founded in 1996. , it hosts more than one million humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent source of information, designed specifically to assist the international humanitarian community in effective delivery of emergency assistance or ''relief''. It provides information as humanitarian crises unfold, while emphasizing the coverage of "forgotten emergencies" at the same time. Origin and development ReliefWeb was founded in October 1996 and is administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The project began under the US Department of State, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, which had noticed during the Rwanda crisis how poorly critical operational information was shared between NGOs, UN Agencies and Governments. In 1995, the Department's Senior Policy Adviser on Disaster ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Mathurin
The village of Port Mathurin () serves as the capital of the island of Rodrigues, a dependency of Mauritius. Most of the population of Rodrigues is settled close to or in the city. It lies on the north coast of the Indian Ocean island and functions as the administrative, judicial and economic centre of Rodrigues. As the name suggests, it also operates the main harbour of the island. Port Mathurin has a population of around 6,000 people (2006). Sights include its market, while the town also has the island's only bus station and a viewpoint on Mount Fanal, south of the town. There is a Roman Catholic church, an Anglican church, and a small mosque. Other landmarks of Port Mathurin include Marie, Queen of Rodrigues, a statue of the Virgin Mary located in Pointe Canon. The two ships of the Mauritius Cargo Handling Corporation, namely MV ''Mauritius Pride'' and ''Mauritius Trochetia'', anchor at Port Mathurin five times every month. On 1 May 1691, François Leguat and the first Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi.2), including adjacent islands such as the Simeulue Island, Simeulue, Nias Island, Nias, Mentawai Islands, Mentawai, Enggano Island, Enggano, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung and Krakatoa archipelago. Sumatra is an elongated landmass spanning a diagonal northwest–southeast axis. The Indian Ocean borders the northwest, west, and southwest coasts of Sumatra, with the island chain of Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai Islands, Mentawai, and Enggano off the western coast. In the northeast, the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, which is an extension of the Eurasian continent. In the southeast, the narrow Sunda Strait, containing the Krakatoa archipelago, separates Sumatra from Java. The northern tip of Sumatra is near ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ridge (meteorology)
In meteorology a ridge or barometric ridge is an elongated area of relatively high atmospheric pressure compared to the surrounding environment, without being a closed circulation. It is associated with an area of maximum anticyclonic curvature of wind flow. The ridge originates in the center of an anticyclone and sandwiched between two low-pressure areas, and the locus of the maximum curvature is called the ''ridge line''. This phenomenon is the opposite of a trough. Description Ridges can be represented in two ways: * On surface weather maps, the pressure isobars form contours where the maximum pressure is found along the axis of the ridge. * In upper-air maps, geopotential height isohypses form similar contours where the maximum defines the ridge. Related weather Given the direction of the winds around an anticyclonic circulation and the fact that weather systems move from west to east: *ahead of an upper-ridge, the airflow that comes from the polar regions and bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago. It has been used as a joint UK–U.S. military base since the 1970s, following the expulsion of the Chagossians by the UK government. The Chagos Islands are set to become a former British Overseas Territories, British overseas territory — a treaty to transfer sovereignty from the UK to Mauritius was signed on 22 May 2025, with a provision that the military base at the island would remain under British control for at least 99 years. Located just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia lies east of Tanzania, east-southeast of Somalia, south of the Maldives, southwest of India, west-southwest of Sumatra, northwest of Australia, and northeast of Mauritius#Mauritius_Island, Mauritius Island. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, an underwater mountain range that includes the Lakshadweep, the Maldives, and the other 60 small islands of the Chagos Archi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monsoon Trough
The monsoon trough is a convergence zone between the wind patterns of the southern and northern hemispheres. It is a portion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Western Pacific,Bin WangThe Asian Monsoon.Retrieved 2008-05-03. and is depicted by a line on a weather map showing the locations of minimum sea level pressure. Westerly monsoon winds lie in its equatorward portion while easterly trade winds exist poleward of the trough. Right along its axis, heavy rains can be found which usher in the peak of a location's respective rainy season. The monsoon trough plays a role in creating many of the world's rainforests. The term ''monsoon trough'' is most commonly used in monsoonal regions of the Western Pacific such as Asia and Australia. The migration of the ITCZ/monsoon trough into a landmass heralds the beginning of the annual rainy season during summer months. Depressions and tropical cyclones often form in the vicinity of the monsoon trough, with each capable of produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anticyclone
A high-pressure area, high, or anticyclone, is an area near the surface of a planet where the atmospheric pressure is greater than the pressure in the surrounding regions. Highs are middle-scale meteorological features that result from interplays between the relatively larger-scale dynamics of an entire planet's atmospheric circulation. The strongest high-pressure areas result from masses of cold air which spread out from polar regions into cool neighboring regions. These highs weaken once they extend out over warmer bodies of water. Weaker—but more frequently occurring—are high-pressure areas caused by atmospheric subsidence: Air becomes cool enough to precipitate out its water vapor, and large masses of cooler, drier air descend from above. Within high-pressure areas, winds flow from where the pressure is highest, at the center of the area, towards the periphery where the pressure is lower. However, the direction is not straight from the center outwards, but curved du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between its limits to the north and south of the equator. Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the Wet season, rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is also sometimes used to describe locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the Monsoon#Africa (West African and Southeast African), West African, Asian–Australian monsoon, Australian, the North American monsoon, North American, and South American monsoons. The term was first Glossary of the British Raj, used in English in British India and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
