Bye-bye Dineo, she does not exist any more

Cyclone Dineo, which became a tropical depression when it made landfall last Wednesday, does not exist any more.

The SA Weather Service (SAWS) has confirmed that the system has dissipated since the weekend in Namibia after four days of destruction in some parts of southern Africa, including South Africa.

More than 20 000 homes were destroyed in Mozambique, with millions of rands in damage, as tropical storm Dineo hit. Seven people were killed and 14 seriously injured in Mozambique since the storm’s arrival on the eastern coast earlier last week, according to Mozambique government sources.

Dineo affected much of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, flooding much of both countries and leaving more than 100 000 homeless in the former. In Botswana, she left a trail too.

In South Africa, the forecaster reported about isolated areas in Limpopo and Mpumalanga being affected by the storm, including a few campsites in the Kruger National Park that were flooded. At least 20 houses were destroyed. But numbers alone can’t reflect the true damage of a natural disaster.

The weather service pointed out that any rain or systems we see now are not related to the ex-cyclone but due to a summer system that is moving over the country.

The list of storm names in rotation for the 2016/17 cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean region, as per the WMO website, are Abela, Bransby, Carlos, Dineo, Enawo, Fernando, Gabekile, Herold, Irondro, Jeruto, Kundai, Lisebo, Michel, Nousra, Olivier, Pokera, Quincy, Rebaone, Salama, Tristan, Ursula, Violet, Wilson, Xila, Yekela and Zaina.

Hopefully we won’t need to use all those names by December.

– Caxton News Service

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