Goma, Willy S (Department of Meteorology, Lusaka, Zambia)
Cyclogenesis is generally favoured in in the latitude belt (05░-15░) north and south of the equator (Mukolwe & Patnaik, 1987). Therefore, cyclogensis in the mediterranean region and southern eastern Africa sub-continent are discussed. Statistics derived by Radinovic (1965) has shown that in the mediterranean there are several cyclogenesis region 7the gulf of Genoa,Thyrrenian sea, Northern adriatic, Southern adriatic, Aegean sea, Panonean lowland & some others). Although there are several types of cyclones in this region most of them may be said to be orographic and such their high frequency of occurrence would be connected to the mountains.
Therefore, hazardous weather extremes resulting from these cyclones cannot be over emphasized. Similarly, tropical cyclones forming in the south west Indian ocean that frequent south eastern African sub-continent have had some tremendous impact in the region ingeneral. Our country Zambia situated in this region has not ben exceptional. These moving westward tropical cyclones towards the African cosat recurve into Mozambique channel either after crossing the Malagasy mainland or just passing north of it. A few ones are known to have crossed the African coast once in some years (Bhangley, 1973). Over the land they weaken quickly due to friction and insufficient moisture, but a good number of them have managed to travel a considerable distance in land for cyclone Benedicto January 1981, Bonita January 1996 etc.
Most of the precipitation in the Mediterranean basin are said to be associated with cyclones forming in certain preferential areas such as Gulf of Genoa, Adriatic sea, etc (Radinovic, 1987). In the case of the south west southern hemisphere tropical cyclones rarely make landfall track but depending on the its strenght and location they have profund indirect effects on the weather Garanganga (1992) over the region. It has been observed by Castro (1992) that heaviest rainfall in mediterranean region is recorded from end of autumn to beginning of spring when significant cyclogenetic activity fundamentally determines maximum rainfall. While in southern Africa it is during summer when we experience cyclogenesis with similar heavy rainfall amounts.
The objective of this paper is to study the sporadic cyclogenesis in both Mediterranean and Southern eastern Africa or south west Indian ocean. Considerations are made with regards to the structure, life cycle and hazarrdous impact resulting from these cyclones with particular emphasis to tropicl cyclone Doala January 1988, Calasanjy January 1989 and Bonita January 1996.