Cyclone Asani

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted the Cyclone Asani to intensify into a ‘severe cyclone’ over Southeast regions of Bay of Bengal.

Key Points:

• The name Cyclone Asani has been given by Sri Lanka. It means ‘wrath’ in Sinhalese.
• Tropical cyclones in the North Indian Ocean region (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) develop during the pre-monsoon (April to June) and post-monsoon (October to December) periods.

Tropical Cyclones

• A tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
• A characteristic feature of tropical cyclones is the eye, a central region of clear skies, warm temperatures, and low atmospheric pressure.
• Storms of this type are called hurricanes in the North Atlantic and eastern Pacific and typhoons in SouthEast Asia and China. They are called tropical cyclones in the southwest Pacific and Indian Ocean region and Willy-willies in north-western Australia.
• Storms rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
• The conditions favourable for the formation and intensification of tropical storms are:
  1. Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.
  2. Presence of the Coriolis force.
  3. Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
  4. A pre-existing weak low- pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
  5. Upper divergence above the sea level system.