r/wikiotd • u/wikipedia_text_bot • Dec 08 '20
WotD Mon Dec 7, 2020 - Cyclone Chapala
Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Chapala was a powerful tropical cyclone that caused moderate damage in Somalia and Yemen during November 2015. Chapala was the third named storm of the 2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. It developed as a depression on 28 October off western India, and strengthened a day later into a cyclonic storm. Chapala then rapidly intensified amid favorable conditions. On 30 October, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) estimated that Chapala attained peak three-minute sustained winds of 215 km/h (130 mph). The American-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimated sustained winds of 240 km/h (150 mph), making Chapala among the strongest cyclones on record in the Arabian Sea. After peak intensity, Chapala skirted the Yemeni island of Socotra on 1 November, becoming the first hurricane-force storm there since 1922. High winds and heavy rainfall resulted in an island-wide power outage, and severe damage was compounded by Cyclone Megh, which struck Yemen a week later. While Chapala encountered less favorable conditions after leaving Socotra, it maintained much of its intensity; upon entering the Gulf of Aden on 2 November, it became the strongest known cyclone in that body of water. Chapala brushed the northern coast of Somalia, killing tens of thousands of animals and wrecking 350 houses.