Zware cycloon Fani teistert India en Bangladesh - tientallen doden

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Cyclone Fani expected to intensify as it heads toward eastern India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Cyclone Fani is expected to intensify into an “extremely severe” storm as it heads toward the coast of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, the India Meteorological Office said on Tuesday.

The storm is currently in the Bay of Bengal about 690 km (414 miles) east-southeast of Chennai and moved north-northwest at a speed of 16 km per hour (10 miles per hour) over the past six hours, the office said.

Fani is generating maximum sustained winds of 85 knots, or about 157 kph (98 mph), according to a storm advisory from the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

The India Meteorological Office has forecast heavy rainfall in Odisha and in some parts of the state of Andhra Pradesh in the next few days.

The Odisha state government has asked officials to be alert and evacuate people if the storm intensifies and makes landfall in the state, Bishnupada Sethi, the state’s special relief commissioner, told Reuters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his officials and the National Crisis Management Committee to stay in touch with the states at risk from Cyclone Fani, a government statement said.

Separately, the weather office also forecast thunder squalls over the state of Tamil Nadu and the federally administered area of Puducherry over the next five days.

At least 60 people were killed in lightning strikes and by collapsing houses during a thunderstorm across northern and western India earlier this month[/url]

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Severe cyclonic storm Fani likely to make landfall in Odisha on May 4

The weather department said the storm is likely to intensify into an extremely severe cyclonic storm over the next two days.

Severe cyclonic storm Fani likely to make landfall in Odisha on May 4
A village along the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border that was struck by Cyclone Titli in October. | IANS (Representative photo)
The “severe cyclonic storm” Fani in the Bay of Bengal is likely to make landfall on the Odisha coastline by early morning on May 4, The Indian Express reported, quoting the India Meteorological Department. It is likely to intensify into an extremely severe cyclonic storm by Wednesday night.

“The information as of now tells us that the cyclone would make a landfall on the Odisha coastline sometime early in the morning of May 4 or late in the evening of May 3,” said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, head of services at India Meteorological Department. “There is still some uncertainty about the exact place in Odisha where it would come on to the land. According to its current trajectory, it could be somewhere near Puri. But we can know this better only by tomorrow.”

Cyclone Fani – pronounced “Foni” – is seen moving northwestwards towards the coastline of northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh till May 1, and then re-curve north-northeastwards towards the Odisha coast, the Met department said.

“It is very likely to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm during next 12 hours and into an extremely severe cyclonic storm during subsequent 24 hours,” the weather department said. It intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on Monday evening.

In case of an “extremely severe cyclonic storm”, the wind speed goes up to 170 to 180 km per hour gusting up to 195 kmph, according to PTI.

The National Crisis Management Committee, the country’s top body to deal with emergency situations, took stock of the situation on Monday and assured state governments of all assistance from the central government.

The National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Coast Guard have been put on high alert, the Home Ministry said. Naval aircraft are on standby at air stations – INS Rajali at Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu and INS Dega at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, to undertake reconnaissance, rescue, casualty evacuation and air drop of relief material if required, reported ANI.

In Depth: Cyclone Fani

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Fani is India’s strongest April cyclone in 43 years, say meteorologists

Unusual formation due to the warming of the Bay of Bengal basin; protracted gestation could lead to its gaining strength
Cyclonic storm Fani, which is lying about 600 km east of Vishakapatnam and 800 km south of Puri, is the first severe, cyclonic storm to have formed in April in India’s oceanic neighbourhood since 1976, according to records from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

While severe cyclones (defined as generating maximum windspeeds of 89-117 kmph) can form any time, they tend to be concentrated in November — after the monsoon — or around May, when the monsoon prepares to arrive in Kerala in June.

The head of IMD told The Hindu that such quirks were a consequence of global warming. “This is a cyclone that’s forming due to the warming of the Bay of Bengal basin…with global warming we have to be prepared for such occurrences and take precaution accordingly,” said K.J. Ramesh, Director-General, IMD. He said that Fani, so far, was unlikely to have an impact on the advent of the monsoon.

From 1965-2017, the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea have collectively registered 46 ‘severe cyclonic storms.’ As many as 28 of them were from October-December. Seven of them have been in May and only two — in 1966 and 1976 — were recorded in April, data from the IMD’s cyclone-statistics unit shows.

Tropical cyclones in the Indian neighbourhood begin as ‘depressions’ or a gradual build-up of warm air and pockets of low pressure. About 35% of such formations intensify to ‘cyclones’ and only 7% intensify to ‘very severe cyclones’. About 20-30 severe tropical storms occur around the world every year.

The IMD ranks cyclones on a 5-point scale with the mildest at 62-88 kmph and the strongest, a ‘super cyclonic storm’, at 221 kmph). Cyclone Fani is expected to graduate to an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’ by Wednesday and make landfall in Orissa (as a very severe cyclonic storm) by May 4, according to an evening forecast by the IMD on Tuesday.

“It is very likely to move northwestwards till May 1 evening and thereafter re-curve north-northeastwards and reach Odisha Coast by May 3 afternoon with maximum sustained wind of speed 170-180 gusting to 200 kmph,” the IMD statement notes.

Meteorologists also point to Fani’s protracted gestation. The storm had been building up since April 25 and is expected to make landfall, according to current models, only by May 3. “Nearly 10 days is an extremely long period,” said Mr. Ramesh. On an average tropical cyclones form and make landfall in less than a week.

Satheesh Shenoi, Director, INCOIS (Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services), a research unit responsible for tracking the oceans, said that Fani’s slow progress — it is now moving at 11-18 kmph — was also a matter of worry as the longer it hovered in the ocean, the more moisture and energy it gained from the ocean and the stronger its impact along the coast. “For now, models suggest that waves as high as 6.3 m are possible in the ocean under the influence of the storm,” he told The Hindu.

Heavy rains are expected in north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and light rains in West Bengal under the influence of the cyclone. Strong winds are expected in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and south Andhra. Fishermen have been advised to stay away from the sea.

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Op donderdag 2 mei 2019 19:38 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

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En categorie 4 niet dan?

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Minstens 42 doden in India en Bangladesh na cycloon Fani

Na de doortocht van cycloon Fani zijn in India en Bangladesh minstens 42 mensen omgekomen. In de oostelijke Indiase deelstaat Odisha tekenden de autoriteiten 29 doden op, terwijl de teller in Bangladesh op 13 staat, zo blijkt vandaag uit een nieuwe balans.

Fani teisterde Odisha vrijdag met windsnelheden tot 200 kilometer per uur. Daarna verloor de cycloon aan kracht op weg naar het noordoostelijk gelegen Bangladesh. De balans van de doortocht van de tropische storm is het hoogst in het Indiase pelgrimsoord Puri: alleen daar lieten 21 mensen het leven. Van de 13 slachtoffers in Bangladesh, werden er 6 getroffen door bliksem.

Zowel in Odisha als in Bangladesh richtte Fani veel schade aan: de cycloon ontwortelde bomen en rukte daken los. Grote gebieden zitten al voor de derde dag op rij zonder stroom.

De regeringsleider van Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, kondigde al financiële en voedselhulp aan voor getroffenen in de deelstaat. De zwaarst geteisterde gemeenten zullen voor 15 dagen mondvoorraad geleverd krijgen.