File:Tropical Cyclone Eloise (MODIS 2021-01-24).jpg

English: After crossing Madagascar and spinning across the Mozambique Channel, Tropical Cyclone Eloise made landfall in central Mozambique on January 23, 2021. The storm came ashore at about 2:00 a.m. local time (0000 UTC) near the port city of Beira packing maximum sustained winds of about 87 mph (140 km/h) with gusts of up to 100 mph (160 km/h). Heavy rains also accompanied the storm—Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology (INAM) reported that Beira received 250 mm (13.8 in) of rain in 24 hours.

After moving ashore, Eloise began to weaken and was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm. As it moves westward across southern Africa, Eloise will continue to drop extremely heavy rain, bringing risk of severe flooding. Many of the rivers in Mozambique’s southern and central regions were already above flood alert prior to Tropical Cyclone Eloise’s landfall.

A status report published on ReliefWeb on January 23 states: “Luisa Meque, President of Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), has noted that it is too early to quantify the extent and scale of the destruction, but that the damage in Beira appears to be mild. Electricity was down in parts of the city and communications networks were damaged. However, teams were out assessing pylons and transmission lines on 23 January with a view to beginning repairs as soon as possible. The Munhava barrio and Praia Nova are both areas of concern in Beira, with provincial authorities reporting damages and flooding in both locations. Prior to making landfall, Eloise brought heavy rains and strong winds to Zambezia Province, reportedly uprooting trees and damaging some buildings, including in the provincial capital, Quelimane.”

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of Tropical Cyclone Eloise approaching Mozambique on January 22. The large cloud-filled eye sits just off the coast while rain bands reach well inland. At about this time, the storm had maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph (120 km/h) which made it a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.