1999–2000 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season
The 1999–2000 South-West Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season was the first on record in which two storms – Leon–Eline and Hudah – struck Mozambique at tropical cyclone intensity, or with maximum sustained winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph). The most notable storm of the season was Eline, which was the longest-lasting storm on record in the basin. It lasted for 29 days while traversing the southern Indian Ocean, making the strongest landfall in decades along eastern Madagascar in late February. The storm was the first in a series of three storms that struck the country in early 2000, along with Gloria in March and Hudah in April. Collectively, the three storms killed at least 316 people. The season started on November 1, 1999, and ended for most of the basin on April 30, 2000; for Mauritius and the Seychelles, the season continued until May 15. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the basin;
1998–99 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season
After an extended period with no activity across much of the Indian Ocean, the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) rebuilt toward the end of February, and spawned an area of convection on March 1 in the extreme eastern portion of the basin. The next day, a circulation was noted on satellite imagery to the northeast of the convection, which indicated that a tropical disturbance had developed. The influence of the monsoon trough steered the disturbance to the southeast into the Australian basin, where moderate wind shear prevented quick development. A building ridge to the south turned the system to the southwest, bringing it back into the south-west Indian on March 3 as a tropical depression. With decreasing wind shear, the depression slowly intensified as convection increased, becoming Tropical Storm Davina on March 4. An eye developed the next day, signaling Davina had intensified into a tropical cyclone, or reaching 10-minute winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph). On March 7, Davina became an intense tropical cyclone, with sustained 10-minute winds of 165 km/h (105 mph). At around the same time, the JTWC estimated peak 1-minute winds of 205 km/h (125 mph).