Arabian Sea Cyclones

Arabian Sea Cyclones

Subject: Geography

Context:  Studies using a 50-year (1970-2019) extreme weather events dataset of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) have shown that in recent decades, there has been increased occurrences of extreme weather events, including extremely severe cyclonic storms.

About:

• An analysis of past data of cyclones over the North Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) during the period 1891–2020 indicates that the frequency of extremely severe cyclonic storms has increased in recent years over the Arabian Sea since 1990, and remained the same over the Bay of Bengal.
• The highest loss of lives occurred during Cyclones Tautkae, 2021, 118 deaths), Amphan (2020, 98 deaths), Titli (2018, 78 deaths) and Nilam (2012, 75 deaths), the data showed.
• One of the reasons that we are seeing more and more storms and cyclones in the tropical regions, especially regions like Arabian Sea, is because of rapid ocean warming.
• The Arabian Sea is one of the fastest warming basins across the global oceans.

Tropical Cyclone:

• Tropical cyclones represent a circulatory motion of air towards a low-pressure centre.
• In these cyclones, the wind blows counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
• They develop in the tropics and move from east to west.
• Most of the tropical cyclones develop in the doldrums region.
• They are associated with violent winds and heavy rainfall and represent destructive weather phenomena.
• The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of tropical cyclones.
• The cyclone’s lowest barometric pressure occurs in the eye and can be as much as 15 percent lower than the pressure outside the storm.
• Due to the mechanics of a tropical cyclone, the eye and the air directly above it are warmer than their surroundings.