The South-West Indian Ocean Cyclone Season – which affects South East Africa – drew to a close this week, after a devastating spell in 2019 claimed over a thousand lives and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

The tragic season came to an end on Wednesday. The first day of May typically signifies the end of this particular cycle, which will pick up again from November onwards. Mauritius and the Seychelles are not yet out of the woods though, as their cyclone season remains in place until 15 May.

The cost of Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth

There will finally be respite for the battered nations of Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. They were all targeted by Cyclone Idai in March, before Cyclone Kenneth doubled-up on the destruction just a few weeks later. The figures behind the destruction almost defy comprehension.

Over 100 000 people were displaced by the tropical storms. Both Idai and Kenneth recorded wind speeds of around 200km/h. And sadly, the 2018/19 South-West Indian Ocean Cyclone Season broke records for all the wrong reasons.

Given the scale of the carnage, it’s now understood that this was the most expensive season on record. Early estimates predict that there was $2 billion’s worth of damage across South-East Africa in the past six months.

Final death toll from the 2018/19 Cyclone Season

As well as the financial cost, the human toll has been utterly horrifying. A total of 1 079 people have died as a result of the cyclones, which goes down as the deadliest season since 1892. The now-infamous Mauritius Cyclone claimed over 1 200 lives and devastated the islands.

Roughly 9-10 named tropical storms occur in the Southwest Indian Ocean each season. However, 2018/19 broke another record, with an all-time high of 15 storms occurring in little over half a year. Ten of those were “intense tropical cyclones”, which is also abnormally frequent.

What you need to know about the South-West Indian Ocean Cyclone Season:

Most tropical cyclones in this area move westward or southwestward parallel and south of the equator toward Madagascar or Mozambique, although landfalls in either country only occur once every other year.

The smaller islands of Mauritius, La Reunion and Comoros get additional landfalls. Madagascar is typically hit frequently during a given cyclone season, but most of these storms are weak.

In addition to extreme wind speeds, torrential rainfall and oceanic surges are major contributors to the destructive power of tropical cyclones. Tropical Cyclone Kenneth was estimated to have dumped 1500mm of rain on Mozambique’s coastal regions over a five-day period, with Idai also pushing the four-figure mark.