Cyclone Mekunu intensifies as it advances on Oman

Oman said Friday that Cyclone Mekunu, which has wreaked havoc in the Yemeni island of Socotra, has intensified into category 2 as it approaches the southern part of the sultanate.

"Latest observations show that tropical cyclone Mekunu has intensified to category 2," with high wind speeds, Oman's Directorate General of Meteorology said on Twitter.

The Gulf state's early warning centre said that the eye of the cyclone was just 180 kilometres (112 miles) away from Salalah, the main city in Dhofar province.

It expected that Mekunu will make landfall in the early hours of the afternoon.

Several cities in Dhofar were lashed by heavy rain in the early hours of Friday as the centre of the cyclone approached the coast, it added in a statement carried by the official Oman news agency.

Oman on Thursday placed police and army on alert and closed schools until Monday in preparation for the cyclone.

State-run television in Oman said authorities evacuated hundreds of residents from a small island off the southern city of Salalah, capital of Dhofar province.

Oman's civil aviation authority has announced that Salalah airport would be closed for 24 hours from midnight (2000 GMT Thursday).

At least 17 people were missing after Mekunu hit Yemen's Socotra island on Thursday, causing severe flooding and damage.

The government declared Socotra a "disaster province".

The Yemeni high relief agency met with international humanitarian organisations in Aden late Thursday to discuss the situation on the island, the Saba news agency reported.

It was decided to set up 11 relief centres in Socotra to provide shelter for people who were forced to evacuate their homes.

The meeting also discussed taking the necessary measures to provide aid to people in three provinces in southeast Yemen expected to be hit by the cyclone.

Subtropical Storm Alberto forms ahead of hurricane season
Miami (AFP) May 25, 2018 - Subtropical Storm Alberto formed in the Caribbean on Friday, giving an early kickoff to the Atlantic hurricane season one week ahead of schedule.

Alberto formed about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of Cozumel, off of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center reported.

The storm is forecast to soak parts of Cuba and Florida on its way north towards the US Gulf Coast, according to an NHC forecast.

At 1500 GMT Alberto packed winds of 40 miles per hour and was moving north-northeast at a speed of six miles per hour.

Alberto is expected to pass near the eastern coast of the Yucatan peninsula late Friday, reach the western tip of Cuba on Saturday, emerge over the Gulf of Mexico late Saturday, and on Monday approach the north-central US Gulf Coast -- the states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, the NHC said.

It added that "gradual strengthening" is forecast for the next 72 hours.

Alberto is expected to drop between 10 and 15 inches (25 and 38 centimeters) of rain across parts of the Yucatan Peninsula and western Cuba.

"These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the NHC warned.

The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins officially on June 1, could bring 10 to 16 named storms, including tropical storms and hurricanes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Thursday.

Last year was particularly devastating, with Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria wreaking deadly havoc throughout the Caribbean and Atlantic basin.

They were among 17 storms large enough to merit their own names which tore through the Atlantic basin, including 10 hurricanes.

Tallied together, 16 major weather disasters in the United States, including hurricanes, cost the US $306.2 billion in 2017, breaking the previous cost record of $214.8 billion in 2005, said NOAA.

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At least 18 dead after cyclone hits Horn of Africa
Addis Ababa (AFP) May 21, 2018
Flooding and strong winds caused by a tropical cyclone left at least 18 people dead and thousands homeless across two countries in the Horn of Africa, an aid agency said Monday. Cyclone Sagar formed last week in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen's coast and made landfall on Saturday in Djibouti and Somaliland, a breakaway state in northern Somalia where the bulk of the deaths occurred. "1,780 families fled their homes due to the storm, 16 people were reported killed, and at least 80 homes were destroye ... read more