Publication Date November 3, 2015 | Washington Post

Historic Cyclone Chapala ravages coastal Yemen with catastrophic flash flooding

Yemen
Cyclone Chapala flooded the coastal cities of Yemen with at least five years worth of rain when it made landfall early Tuesday morning. Photo: NOAA, EUMETSAT
Cyclone Chapala flooded the coastal cities of Yemen with at least five years worth of rain when it made landfall early Tuesday morning. Photo: NOAA, EUMETSAT

Cyclone Chapala made landfall in Yemen early Tuesday, becoming the first hurricane-strength storm on record to do so...Tropical cyclones are not uncommon in the Arabian Sea — on average a few weak to moderately strong storms spin up each year. However, cyclone landfalls in this region are rare. Cyclone Chapala is the first known hurricane-strength storm to make landfall in Yemen since modern records began there in the 1940s, and just the third hurricane on record to make landfall across the entire Arabian Peninsula.