On February 13, 2012, Tropical Cyclone Giovanna was located about 250 nautical miles (465 kilometers) east of Antananarivo, Madagascar. The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that the cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 125 knots (230 kilometers per hour) and gusts up to 150 knots (280 kilometers per hour).
Giovanna’s clouds stretch from Mauritius and Réunion in the east to the coast of Madagascar in the west. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color scene on February 13, 2012. The storm’s central eye roughly matches the size of the island of Réunion, and the whole storm spans hundreds of kilometers.
The JTWC forecast that Giovanna would continue moving west, weakening after making landfall on Madagascar, but regaining strength over the Mozambique Channel. The JTWC anticipated that Giovanna would ultimately come ashore in Mozambique and dissipate after that landfall.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.
