 DEFINITION FORMATION STRUCTURE

Cyclones are rapid inward air circulation around a low-pressure area. The air circulates in an
anticlockwise direction in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern
hemisphere.

 Cyclones are usually accompanied by violent storms and bad weather.

 The word Cyclone is derived from the Greek word Cyclos meaning the coils of a snake. It was
coined by Henry Peddington because the tropical storms in the Bay of Bengal and the
Arabian Sea appear like coiled serpents of the sea.

Classification

 There are two types of cyclones:

o Tropical cyclones; and

o Extra Tropical cyclones (also called Temperate cyclones or middle latitude cyclones
or Frontal cyclones or Wave Cyclones).

 The World Meteorological Organisation uses the term 'Tropical Cyclone’ to cover weather
systems in which winds exceed ‘Gale Force’ (minimum of 63 km per hour).

o Tropical cyclones develop in the region between the Tropics of Capricorn and
Cancer. They are large-scale weather systems developing over tropical or subtropical
waters, where they get organized into surface wind circulation.

 Tropical cyclones are violent storms that originate over oceans in tropical areas and move
over to the coastal areas bringing about large scale destruction caused by violent winds, very
heavy rainfall and storm surges.

 Tropical Cyclones are one of the most devastating natural calamities in the world.

 Tropical cyclones originate and intensify over warm tropical oceans. The conditions
favourable for the formation and intensification of tropical storms are:

o Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.

o Presence of the Coriolis force.

o Small variations in the vertical wind speed.

o A pre-existing weak low- pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.

o Upper divergence above the sea level system.

Stages of Formation: Tropical Cyclones

The development cycle of tropical cyclones may be divided into three stages:
Formation and Initial Development Stage

 The formation and initial development of a cyclonic storm depends upon the transfer of
water vapour and heat from the warm ocean to the overlying air, primarily by evaporation
from the sea surface.

 It encourages formation of massive vertical cumulus clouds due to convection with

condensation of rising air above the ocean surface.

Mature Stage

 When a tropical storm intensifies, the air rises in vigorous thunderstorms and tends to
spread out horizontally at the tropopause level. Once air spreads out, a positive pressure at
high levels is produced, which accelerates the downward motion of air due to convection.

 With the inducement of subsidence, air warms up by compression and a warm ‘Eye’ (Low
pressure centre) is generated. The main physical feature of a mature tropical cyclone in the
Indian Ocean is a concentric pattern of highly turbulent giant cumulus thundercloud bands.

Modification and Decay

 A tropical cyclone begins to weaken in terms of its central low pressure, internal warmth and
extremely high speeds, as soon as its source of warm moist air begins to ebb or is abruptly
cut off.

 This happens after its landfall or when it passes over cold waters.

Nomenclature of Tropical Cyclones

  The naming of tropical cyclones is a recent phenomenon. The process of naming cyclones
involves several countries in the region and is done under the aegis of the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO).

 For the Indian Ocean region, a formula for naming cyclones was agreed upon in 2004. Eight
countries in the region - Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
and Thailand - all contributed a set of names which are assigned sequentially whenever a
cyclonic storm develops.

 Hudhud, Titli, Phethai, Fani, Vayu and Amphan are among the names of cyclones in the
Indian Ocean region.

Worldwide Terminology of Tropical Cyclones

 They are given many names in different regions of the world – [Link] are known
as Typhoons in the China Sea and Pacific Ocean; Hurricanes in the West Indian islands in the
Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean; Tornados in the Guinea lands of West Africa and southern
USA.; Willy-willies in north-western Australia and Tropical Cyclones in the Indian Ocean.

The development cycle of tropical cyclones may be divided into three stages:

Formation and Initial Development Stage

The formation and initial development of a cyclonic storm depends upon various conditions. These
are:

 A warm sea (a temperature in excess of 26 degrees Celsius to a depth of 60 m) with

abundant and turbulent transfer of water vapour to the overlying atmosphere by
evaporation.

 Atmospheric instability encouraging formation of massive vertical cumulus clouds due to

convection with condensation of rising air above ocean surface.

Mature Tropical Cyclones

When a tropical storm intensifies, the air rises in vigorous thunderstorms and tends to spread out
horizontally at the tropopause level. Once air spreads out, a positive perturbation pressure at high
levels is produced, which accelerates the downward motion of air due to convection. With the
inducement of subsidence, air warms up by compression and a warm ‘Eye’ is generated. Generally,
the ‘Eye’ of the storms has three basic shapes: (i) circular; (ii) concentric; and (iii) elliptical. The main
physical feature of a mature tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean is a concentric pattern of highly
turbulent giant cumulus thundercloud bands.

Modification and Decay

A tropical cyclone begins to weaken in terms of its central low pressure, internal warmth and
extremely high speeds, as soon as its source of warm moist air begins to ebb, or is abruptly cut off.
This happens after its landfall or when it passes over cold waters. The weakening of a cyclone does
not mean thThe Indian subcontinent is one of the worst affected regions in the world. The
subcontinent with a long coastline of 8041 kilometres is exposed to nearly 10 per cent of the world’s
tropical cyclones. Of these, the majority of them have their initial genesis over the Bay of Bengal and
strike the East coast of India. On an average, five to six tropical cyclones form every year, of which
two or three could be severe. More cyclones occur in the Bay of Bengal than the Arabian Sea and the
ratio is approximately 4:1. Cyclones occur frequently on both the coastat the danger to life and
property is over.

On 29th October 1999, the Super Cyclone, also known as Paradip Cyclone, hit Odisha with wind
speeds of up to 250 kmph. It caused the deaths of about 10,000 people, and heavy to extreme
damage in its path of destruction. Often termed as the black Friday tragedy, the cyclone flattened
lakhs of houses, uprooted trees and destroyed infrastructure. Thousands of livestock were killed,
paddy and other crop fields were submerged and hundred thousands of people were affected by the
disaster. Life in the coastal Orissa was brought to a standstill. Large areas along the coastline were
inundated. The cyclone destroyed or caused damage to lives and properties in the coastal districts
such as Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Ganjam. A white paper on the loss
and damage profile of the 1999 super cyclone prepared by the State Government in 2000 stated that
there were 9,885 human casualties. The paper estimated that 13 lakh hectares of paddy crop, 1.76
lakh hectares of vegetables and 2.57 lakh hectares of other crops were destroyed. The disaster
destroyed 22,143 fishing nets and 9,085 boats causing great loss in the lives of the fisherfolk
community. The aftermath of cyclone also saw the major loss of livestock in the cyclone-affected
area. The report of the government put the loss of cattle heads at 3,15,886, poultry at 18,83,468 and
other small animals at 3,16,372.

In 1999, despite the presence of a cyclone shelter in a few places like the village of Padampur, there
was a significant issue in disseminating timely information to the villagers. There was no organised
evacuation process initiated in 1999, leading to only a few villagers evacuating themselves and
seeking refuge in the cyclone shelter. Unfortunately, most of the villagers who did not reach safer
places faced the dire consequences of the Super Cyclone.

However, since then, there has been a commendable enhancement in disaster preparedness and
response mechanisms, ensuring that all villagers are evacuated to safe locations when cyclones are
approaching.

During Cyclone Phailin and the subsequent flood in 2013, for instance, 983,642 people from 15
districts and 171,083 people from three districts were evacuated.

Also, during Cyclone Hudhud in 2014, 255,043 people from 11 districts; during Cyclone Titli (2018)
360,132 people from five districts; during Cyclone Fani (2019) 1,557,170 people from 19 districts;
during Cyclone Bulbul (2019) 11,458 people from five districts; during Cyclone Amphan (2020)
200,346 people from 13 districts were evacuated to the safe shelters (according to the Special Relief
Commissioner, Odisha). Timely and organised evacuation is critical in safeguarding lives and
minimising the impact of disasters.

What we now need is the prior identification of the vulnerable households having persons with
disability, aged persons, pregnant women, children and prioritising them in the evacuation process,
with help of the community radios.

The 1999 Odisha cyclone (IMD designation BOB 06,[1] JTWC designation 05B[3]) was the most intense
recorded tropical cyclone in the North Indian Ocean and among the most destructive in the region.
[note 1]
The 1999 Odisha cyclone organized into a tropical depression in the Andaman Sea on 25
October, though its origins could be traced back to an area of convection in the Sulu Sea four days
prior. The disturbance gradually strengthened as it took a west-northwesterly path, reaching cyclonic
storm strength the next day. Aided by highly favorable conditions, the storm rapidly intensified,
attaining super cyclonic storm intensity on 28 October, before peaking on the next day with winds of
260 km/h (160 mph) and a record-low pressure of 912 mbar (hPa; 26.93 inHg). The storm maintained
this intensity as it made landfall on Odisha on 29 October. The cyclone steadily weakened due to
persistent land interaction and dry air, remaining quasi-stationary for two days before slowly drifting
offshore as a much weaker system; the storm dissipated on 4 November over the Bay of Bengal

The India Meteorological Department periodically issued cyclone warning bulletins during the
storm's lifetime, with the first being directed to the Chief Secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands on 26 October; the first bulletin noted potential impacts and advised fishermen not to
venture out to sea. Six warnings were issued for the islands, with the last being issued on 27 October
once the storm passed to the north and west. Due to initial uncertainty in the storm's forecast track,
the first warnings for the coast of mainland India on 27 October concerned northern Andhra
Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal. Hourly dissemination of cyclone bulletins were carried out
by Doordarshan and All India Radio beginning on 28 October. These warnings eventually narrowed in
scope to the eventually affected areas, with the last warning being issued for Odisha on 31 October. [6]

The Indian Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) served as the primary administrative
body for coordinating preparatory and relief work during the 1999 Odisha cyclone. Upon the storm's
formation, the DAC requested the chief secretaries and relief commissioners of Andhra Pradesh,
Odisha, and West Bengal to begin storm preparations and initiate evacuations if necessary.
Evacuations in Odisha involved nearly 150,000 people living within 10 km (6 mi) of the coastline in
five districts. Six districts maintained 23 permanent cyclone shelters operated by the Indian Red
Cross Society, eventually serving to house 30,000 evacuees. At Paradip Port, twelve docked ships
were evacuated out to sea to avoid the cyclone.[6] In neighboring West Bengal, 200,000 people were
evacuated from the state's vulnerable low-lying islands.[11] The Indian Army was placed on stand-by,
and food supplies were stocked up in prone regions. Train service was cancelled for the areas
expected to be impacted by the cyclone.[12]

After the super cyclone struck with a wind velocity of 270 kmph to 300 kmph, killing more than
10,000 people, the State government established the Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority in
December 1999. The name of the organisation was changed to Odisha State Disaster Management
Authority in September 2008. The super cyclone was preceded by one that had hit the southern
Odisha coast on October 17, 1999 and badly ravaged Berhampur city, causing several deaths. The
super cyclone killed over 8000 people in Jagatsinghpur district alone.
SOUTH ASIA- a subcontinent located in the southernmost part of Asia comprising Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.