What is a super cyclone? Amphan cyclone reported to be a deadly one after the 1999 cyclone

Cyclone Amphan which is recently creating fear in eastern India is all set to make its landfall on the coast of West Bengal on the evening of May 20, 2020. Cyclone Amphan is now considered as a super cyclone since May 18 noon and is a serious issue as the cyclone's associated wind speed is 220-230 kmph. The Amphan cyclone is expected to the cross the coast of West Bengal and Bangladesh on the evening of May 20. The cyclone will cross Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya islands in Bangladesh. The Hatiya islands are close to the Sunderbans of West Bengal. The landfall is expected to occur with the speed of an extremely severe cyclonic storm i.e. 165-175 kmph gusting to 195 kmph.

What is a super cyclone?

• Storms which get rapidly intensified and attain a speed much more than an extremely severe cyclonic storm's wind speed is considered as Super Cyclone. These storms are formed due to the low-pressure systems that form over warm tropical waters and have gusts of wind with a speed of 90 km/h. 
• These super cyclones are formed over large bodies of warm water, where the storm gains intensity from the water evaporation from the surface of the ocean.

Image courtesy: Press Release by India Met. Dept and Ministry of Earth sciences, GOI

Check the image shared by the Storm surge guidance from INCOIS on May 18. The map shows the eastern coast of India and the storm surge in the location. 

Image courtesy: Storm surge guidance from INCOIS

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Examples of super cyclones

The previous cyclone which hit India before this was the Odisha cyclone of 1999. The 1999 cyclone was considered to be the strongest cyclone seen in the North Indian Ocean after 1991 Bangladesh's cyclone. The deadliest tropical Indian cyclone was seen in 1971.

The 1999 Super cyclone in Odish struck the coast of Odisha with a height of 26 feet. Approximately 275,000 homes were destroyed and it affected another 19.5 million people. It occurred when the cyclone was initiated in the last week of October 1999, it started around October 25 and the storm dissipated on November 4, 1999. 

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Super cyclone Amphan details with images

• The coastal districts of West Bengal including East Medinipur, South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata are likely to be worst affected.
• The cyclone is also expected to impact North Odisha coastal districts including Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Bhadrak and Balasore districts.
• The Amphan cyclone is expected to cause extreme rainfall over Gangetic West Bengal as well as north coastal Odisha on May 19 and May 20.
• The fishermen community is alerted about the same and is barred from entering the waters for 2-3 days. 

Check the latest tweet by the Indian Meteorological Department. 

Image courtesy: India Meteorological department Twitter

Image courtesy: India Meteorological department Twitter

Image courtesy: India Meteorological department Twitter

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Latest preparations in the account of incoming Amphan cyclone

• Odisha Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy on Monday said that the state would evacuate around 50,000 to 60,000 people as cyclone Amphan nears. For this, 1000 personnel of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force have also been deployed.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi a day ago and reviewed the response preparedness as well as the evacuation plan presented by the NDRF.
• People residing in the slum areas will be evacuated by May 19, according to Jagatsinghpur District Magistrate, Sangram Keshari Mohapatra, Odisha. 
• People can visit www.rsmcnewdelhi.imd.gov.in and www.mausam.imd.gov.in for weather updates about the super cyclone. 

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Promo Image courtesy: NASA Unsplash (Representative Image)