Cyclone Freddy makes landfall in Madagascar, 100 days from Atlantic hurricane season

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — We are officially 100 days away from the start of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.

In another part of the globe, the tropics are active. The southern Indian Ocean has been dealing with Cyclone Freddy since Feb. 6.

This historic storm made landfall on Tuesday as a borderline Category 2-Category 3 cyclone in Madagascar.

Earlier on in its track, the cyclone became the first storm of 2023 to reach Category 5 winds. Amazingly, the storm traveled close to 5,000 miles from Indonesia to Madagascar. To give you a comparison, northern Alaska to Miami, Florida, is just over 4,500 miles.

Only one other storm on record was able to make a similar track as at least a Category 1, Eline/Leon in the year 2000.

The future track of Freddy is forecasted to rapidly weaken the storm through the island of Madagascar. Freddy should then make a second weaker landfall in Africa later this week.