The western half of Edzani’s clouds on January 8 at 0905 UTC (4:05 a.m. ET) as it flew overhead. Edzani’s eye is still visible. The bright spot to the left of Edzani is sun glint off the ocean surface.

It’s a good thing that Cyclone Edzani is far away from land and will stay that way this weekend, because it’s a powerful cyclone. In fact it’s a Category 4 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale generating waves almost as tall as a three-story building!

On January 8 at 10 a.m. ET (1500 UTC), Cyclone Edzani had maximum sustained winds near 155 mph! That’s 135 knots or 250 kilometers per hour, and it has higher gusts. Edzani’s powerful hurricane-force winds extend out 40 miles from its center, while tropical storm-force winds extend up to 130 miles from the center.

Edzani was centered about 590 nautical miles south-southeast of Diego Garcia near 16.2 degrees South latitude and 76.7 degrees East longitude, safely away from any land areas. Edzani was moving southwestward near 9 mph (8 knots/14 km/hr).

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a visible image of the western half of Edzani’s clouds early today, January 8 at 0905 UTC (4:05 a.m. ET) as it flew overhead. Edzani’s eye was visible in the image, and forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center confirmed that the eye was 15 nautical miles in diameter using infrared and microwave imagery, such as that also provided by AIRS. It’s a powerful storm that is generating waves up to 32 feet high, that’s almost three stories high in a building!

Edzani Power Up in Clouds and Rainfall

Edzani has become a tropical cyclone as a result of low wind shear and warm ocean temperatures.

TRMM data provided a 3-D look at the cloud heights; temperature and rainfall in Tropical Storm Edzani, revealing a towering cloud near 17 km (10.6 miles) high indicating a strong storm.

Early this morning, January 7, the Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Edzani in the South Indian Ocean. The image showed that circulation around the storm has tightened and an eye is now clearly visible, indicating that the storm has strengthened.

Because Edzani continues to be a favorable environment with warm sea surface temperatures over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and low wind shear, the storm is expected to continue intensifying over the next two days before hitting cooler waters.

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Edzani in the South Indian Ocean on Jan. 7 at 0825 UTC (3:25 ET) and an eye is now clearly visible, indicating that the storm has strengthened.

On January 7 at 1500 UTC (10 a.m. ET), Edzani’s center was about 590 nautical miles southeast of Diego Garcia, near 14.6 degrees South and 79.4 degrees East. Edzani is now a Category XX tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, because it’s maximum sustained winds are near 115 mph (185 km/hr) with higher gusts. Edzani is moving southwestward near 5 mph (7 km/hr).