Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have been put on a high alert ahead of the heavy rain forecast on Tuesday and Wednesday. Under the influence of the system in the Bay of Bengal, thunderstorms, lightning and rain is forecast over Bihar, Jharkhand and Sikkim too till 12 May
Asani, the severe cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal, which is packing gale force winds up to 120 km per hour, is moving towards coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha at a speed of 25 km per hour. However, it is expected to weaken gradually over the next two days, India Meteorological Department said.
The cyclonic storm lay centred about 550 km southeast of Vishakhapatnam and 680 km south-southeast of Puri at 5:30 am on Monday, a special bulletin issued by IMD said at 8:45 am.
“It is very likely to move northwestwards till Tuesday and reach West Central and adjoining Northwest Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh & Odisha coasts,” the weather office said.
“Thereafter, it is very likely to recurve north-northeastwards and move towards Northwest Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast. It is likely to weaken gradually into a Cyclonic Storm during the next 48 hours,” the bulletin said.
The system will not make landfall either in Odisha or Andhra Pradesh, IMD Director-General Mrutunjay Mohaptra had said on Sunday.
The IMD in its latest bulletin said that the wind speed will be 105 to 115 gusting 125 kmph and then the storm is expected to lose stream in the sea on May 10 with wind speed coming down to 96-105 gusting 115 in the early hours reducing progressively as the day wears off.
The Met department has predicted light to moderate rainfall from Tuesday evening at many places over districts of coastal Odisha and heavy rainfall (7 -11cm) at one or two places over the districts of Puri, Gajapati and Ganjam.
Meanwhile, Odisha government said it has not lowered guards even after getting information that the cyclone will not hit the state’s coast. The state was prepared to evacuate 7.5 lakh people if need be, Special Relief Commissioner P K Jena said.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has also put on alert its employees and disaster management teams in view of the formation of cyclonic storm Asani, which is likely to intensify further into a severe cyclone, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Sunday.
He said the leaves of all employees concerned are being cancelled to deal with any emergency evolving due to the cyclone, which he said is unlikely to hit the city but will bring heavy rains in its wake. Since today morning, Kolkata is experiencing torrential rainfall.
“We are, however, making preparations to deal with any eventuality if the cyclone hits the city so that life is brought back to normal as soon as possible,” Hakim said, adding, taking lessons from the devastating effects of Amphan super cyclone in May 2020, the KMC administration is taking all measures such as keeping cranes, electric saws and earthmovers on standby to clear blockades caused by fallen trees and other debris.
What’s in a cyclone’s name?
Every year, as a cyclone looms over a region, its name becomes a cause of intrigue for many, who wonder why and how is the storm christened.
With Cyclone Asani — a name given by Sri Lanka that means ‘wrath’ in Sinhalese — formed in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday morning and hurtling towards the east coast, the same question pops up again.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), an agency under the United Nations, there can be more than one cyclone at a time in a particular geographical location or around the globe and the systems can last for a week or more.
Therefore, each tropical storm is given a name to avoid confusion, facilitating disaster risk awareness, management and mitigation.
Short and easy-to-pronounce names are helpful in rapidly and effectively disseminating detailed storm information between hundreds of scattered stations, coastal bases and ships at sea.
It is less subject to error than the older and more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods.
Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists prepared by the National Hurricane Center in the US.
In the beginning, storms were named arbitrarily. From the mid-1900’s, feminine names were started to be used for storms. Meteorologists decided later to name storms from a list for a more organised and efficient system, the WMO stated in its website.
There are six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMCs) worldwide and five regional Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres, which are mandated for issuing advisories and naming of cyclonic storms.
The India Meteorological Department is one of the RSMCs and is tasked with giving a title to a cyclone that forms over the northern Indian Ocean when they have reached a maximum sustained surface wind speed of 62 kmph or more. The IMD provides cyclone and storm surge advisories to 13 countries across the north Indian Ocean.
The list is arranged according to the names, given by alphabetically-arranged counties, that are neutral to gender, politics, religious beliefs and cultures. It is used sequentially, column wise.
The designation should not be present in the existing list of the six RSMCs. The name of a storm from the South China Sea that crosses Thailand and emerges into the Bay of Bengal will not be changed.
Once a name is used, it will not be repeated again. The word, which can have a maximum of eight letters, should not be offensive to any member country or hurt the sentiments of any group of population.
In 2020, a new list was released with 169 names, including 13 names each from 13 countries. Earlier, eight countries had given 64 designations.
Names from India that have been used include Gati (speed), Megh (cloud), Akash (sky). Other designations that have been used earlier included Ogni, Helen and Fani from Bangladesh; and Laila, Nargis and Bulbul from Pakistan.
The cyclone that will form after Asani will be called Sitrang, a name given by Thailand.
The names that will be used in the future include the likes of Ghurni, Probaho, Jhar and Murasu from India, Biparjoy (Bangladesh), Asif (Saudi Arabia), Diksam (Yemen) and Toofan (Iran) and Shakhti (Sri Lanka).
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.