Cyclone Tauktae is now onshore over the Indian State of Gujarat India. The storm has weakened since these photos were taken by @NASA Modis this morning, but is still packing 150kmh winds & has done a lot of damage.
Today's satellite presentation of the area has a new feature which has been strengthening over the past few days. A stream of water vapour out of Central Africa & Sudan transiting Chad and Sudan and then the Red Sea near Jeddah.
There is also an increasing amount of activity in the Western Sahara which supports the CMC and KMA model predictions of significant rainfall in these areas in recent forecasts.
May 18th North Africa 10-day accumulated rainfall forecasts. As usual the KMA and CMC models are far more bullish on #DesertRain and the quantities of Sahara rain is astonishing. These areas of desert are usually lucky to get 10mm of rain in a year.
Here's a view of the #HornOfAfrica as the sun went down today. The heavy rains in Sudan are continuing and convection of a more normal scale (compared to that which birthed Tauktae) is restarting off the coast of Somalia.
The pattern of rainfall in terms of location as seen in the satellite imagery today looks as if it will hold with rain mostly in the East and South of Ethiopia. We do see some rain returning to Somalia also. But South Sudan seems to be getting the most.
The forecasts above are for 10-days of rain. These ones are for the next three days till midnight Friday.
So what next for the wider region. The latest GFS and ECMWF models both now have a tropical low system in the Bay of Bengal turning into a depression, and possibly a storm, towards the end of May. Here is the latest GFS model run.
As for the anticipated rain in central Asia including #Kazakhstan#Mongolia, that is still in the forecasts. But the rain in northern Tibet has diminished.
If @realDonaldTrump chooses to join Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign if he is not obeyed …. he WILL find himself indicted in the international criminal court in The Hague.
And he will then have to make a decision on whether he is willing to remain in the U.S.
@realDonaldTrump Should he proceed as he has intimated that he should now be pursued by protestors everywhere he goes.
There is a lot of concern about evacuations of civilians from Gaza in the flotilla as anyone leaving may not be able to return any time soon. /2
But the moral hazard here is palpable. There are thousands of injured and starving mostly women and children. And we saw the young babies dying in the hospitals in the early stages of this war. /3
More and more naval vessels from Europe and the Middle East are being deployed to protect the Global Samir Flotilla as it moves slowly but surely towards Gaza where it intends to deliver aid and global attention. /1
Attacks from drones on the flotilla have resumed and Israel is presumably responsible for this. It is because of this that naval vessels from Europe are now joining the flotilla to protect their citizens rights of travel in international waters. /2
The escalation appears fairly slow at present and the flotilla is still within Greek waters at present /3
The #Samud #GazaFlotilla is currently sailing across the Ionian Sea towards the island archipelago south east of Athens in the Western Mediterranean. Conditions appear good for this leg that departed from Sicily after leaving Tunisia. The Flotilla set off from Barcelona.
2/ this current leg is 860 kms roughly and lead boats in the 51 vessel flotilla are currently approaching south western Greece. You can follow the flotillas progress here >> flotilla-orpin.vercel.app
3/ After two drone attacks on flotilla boats in Tunisia the flotilla sailed first to Sicily where it was joined by several more boats. And this map shows the path of the flotilla so far. The numbers in the dots indicate more vessels joining #GazaFlotilla