Qualla: Cyclone Chapala

Cyclone Chapala: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MODIS image captured by NASA’s Terra satellite, Public domain. Yemen had not seen anything like it. In nearly a century, no hurricane-force cyclone had struck the island of Socotra. No severe storm had made landfall on the mainland since 1960. Then, in early November 2015, Cyclone Chapala tore across the Arabian Sea with sustained winds reaching 240 km/h, crossed the Gulf of Aden as the strongest cyclone ever recorded in those waters, and struck near the port city of Mukalla. In forty-eight hours, parts of southern Yemen received 610 millimeters of rain -- seven hundred percent of their yearly average. The storm arrived in a country already shattered by civil war, where al-Qaeda controlled the very city about to take a direct hit. Nature does not check the political situation before making landfall.

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Image: MODIS image captured by NASA’s Terra satellite | Public domain

Cyclone Chapala: Born from the Monsoon

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. Chapala began as a cluster of thunderstorms southwest of India on October 25, 2015, spawned by the monsoon trough. For three days, moderate wind shear kept the system disorganized. Then conditions shifted. On October 28, the India Meteorological Department classified the disturba...

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Image: NASA | Public domain

Cyclone Chapala: Socotra Takes the First Blow

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MODIS image captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite, Public domain. The Yemeni island of Socotra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its otherworldly dragon blood trees, lay directly in Chapala's path. On November 1, hurricane-force winds and torrential rain swept the island. Over a thousand families had evacuated to schools set up as shel...

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Image: MODIS image captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite | Public domain

Cyclone Chapala: Landfall in a War Zone

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Keith Edkins, Public domain. As Chapala crossed the Gulf of Aden on November 2, it remained ferociously powerful -- the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in that body of water. Along the coast of northern Somalia, the storm killed tens of thousands of livestock and destroyed 350 houses. But the worst ...

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Image: Keith Edkins | Public domain

Cyclone Chapala: Aftermath in a Broken Country

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Astronaut photograph ISS008-E-19646 was taken March 7, 2004, with a Kodak DCS760 digital camera equipped with an 50-mm lens, and is provided by the Earth Observations Laboratory, Johnson Space Center., Public domain. Across Yemen's mainland, Chapala destroyed 214 homes and damaged 600 more. Eight people died -- a toll that officials attributed to the evacuations -- and sixty-five were injured. But the storm's consequences extended far beyond the immediate damage. Between Chapala and the subse...

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Image: Astronaut photograph ISS008-E-19646 was taken March 7, 2004, with a Kodak DCS760 digital camera equipped with an 50-mm lens, and is provided by the Earth Observations Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. | Public domain