Cyclone Gati hits Somalia as country’s strongest storm on record after explosive intensification

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Tropical Cyclone Gati struck the arid nation of Somalia on Sunday as the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds, making it the strongest storm on record to hit the country. The cyclone made landfall after undergoing an extraordinary period of rapid intensification, at one point attaining the strength equivalent to a Category 3 storm, with 115 mph maximum sustained winds.

Its landfall was farther south than any major hurricane-equivalent cyclone on record in that part of the world as well.

At least four people were reported dead from Gati, according to the Puntland Mirror. Landfall occurred near Xaafuun, a small community about 900 miles northeast of Mogadishu, where the land juts east near the northern tip of the country. Hordio and Ashira, both desert communities, were also directly affected by the core of the storm.