Earth’s first category 5 tropical storm of 2021 is Tropical Cyclone Faraji in the southwest Indian Ocean.
Faraji took advantage of low wind shear of 5-10 knots and warm ocean temperatures of 28-29 degrees Celsius (82-84°F) to peak at category 5 strength with 160 mph winds and a central pressure of 920 mb at 1 pm EST Monday, February 8, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). Faraji’s intensity was estimated via the standard Dvorak technique, which uses infrared satellite imagery. In addition, 3-km resolution wind data from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument on Canada’s Radarsat-2 satellite revealed average winds of 157 mph in the southwestern quadrant of Faraji’s eyewall.
Fortunately, Faraji is over 500 miles from any land areas, and will pose hazards to marine interests and not to people this week. The storm is expected to gradually weaken as it moves eastward and then recurves to the south and west later this week, falling below hurricane strength by Saturday. By late next week, it is possible that Fariji will pose a threat to Madagascar and the nearby islands.

South Indian Ocean tropical cyclone history
NOAA’s hurricane history database lists 17 other tropical cyclones in the South Indian Ocean that have achieved category 5 strength since 1989; accurate satellite data in the region extends only back to about 1990. The strongest of these storms, Tropical Cyclone Fantala in 2016, peaked with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph and a central pressure of 907 mb pressure. Fantala did not make landfall, though its eyewall did affect the Farquhar Atoll while the storm was at category 5 strength.
No South Indian Ocean tropical cyclone has ever been recorded to make landfall at category 5 strength. At least 17 have made landfall at category 4 strength: two in mainland Africa, seven in Madagascar, and eight in western Australia.

Earth averaged 5.3 category 5 storms per year between 1990 and 2020, according to ratings made by NOAA’s National Hurricane Center and the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The quality of the Cat 5 database is too poor and the time series of decent data on these storms too short to make definitive conclusions about how climate change may be affecting these most fearsome of storms. However, climate change is expected to make category 5 storms stronger and more numerous in the coming decades.
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Depends how you define season. Yasa was a cat 5 hurricane that went thru Fiji with a lot of devastation but in mid December 2020. That is the SH season.
Kevin
Faraji
https://rammb-data.cira.colostate.edu/tc_realtime/products/storms/2021sh19/4kmirimg/2021sh19_4kmirimg_202102111930.gif
wow can’t belive this is going to happen be ware
https://twitter.com/i/status/1357667817504579590
These are both Faraji at 2214z
https://rammb-data.cira.colostate.edu/tc_realtime/products/storms/2021sh19/amsusr89/2021sh19_amsusr89_202102092214.gif
https://rammb-data.cira.colostate.edu/tc_realtime/products/storms/2021sh19/miiwvrgb/2021sh19_miiwvrgb_202102092214.jpg
oh my god
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAS5Kqei_Zg
is that really u jelly?
ok good.
omg
the 2020 and 2021
ok so why u put that meme up thare
cool
About four hours old..sun setting on Faraji.
https://rammb-data.cira.colostate.edu/tc_realtime/products/storms/2021sh19/1kmsrvis/2021sh19_1kmsrvis_202102091245.gif
Sky, I can’t get away from 6 months ago on Disqus. Is this finally it?
try the link on the post at the top
Still going on in the “newest” wu disqus.. https://disqus.com/home/discussion/wund/weather_underground/newest/
Waiting for disqus to be implemented here. Looks like the current comments here are the best chance at being archived into the next platform. Afraid we lost 6 months of archives there closing that previous thread. That spot is where it goes back every time tried.
2021 to 2020…
At the old wu cane frat house..
get a shirt at the door, no admission without
Why is this the first time I remember hearing about the Canada’s Radarsat-2 satellite being able to measure windspeed? Have never heard of it used in the Atlantic Basin. Or, my memory is fading fast……..
SAR isn’t really used operationally by the NHC, though the JTWC does sporadically make use of it.
Link to product – https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/socd/mecb/sar/AKDEMO_products/APL_winds/tropical/index.html