Greater frequency of cyclones making landfall in Tamil Nadu in recent years
Cyclone Mandous over the southwest Bay of Bengal moved towards the west-northwest, and intensified into a severe cyclonic storm, says IMD
With cyclone ‘Mandous’ likely to make landfall in Tamil Nadu late night Friday, weather scientists have found a greater number of cyclones to have hit the Tamil Nadu coast between 2002 and 2021 as compared to between 1982 and 2001. Cyclones have made landfall in Tamil Nadu more frequently according to weather scientists.
Vineet Kumar, currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Typhoon research centre, Jeju national university, South Korea, and a former research scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), said that cyclone Mandous in the Bay of Bengal will be the first cyclone to hit Tamil Nadu in December since 2016.
“This will be the first cyclone after 2016 to hit Tamil Nadu in December. Also in the last 40 years, this will be only the seventh cyclone to hit Tamil Nadu in December. During the period between 1982 and 2022, this will be only the seventh year wherein a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal will hit the Tamil Nadu coast in December. Earlier, cyclones hit Tamil Nadu in the month of December in 1993, 2000, 2005, 2011, 2013 and 2016. There is greater frequency of cyclones making landfall in December in recent years,” Kumar said.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), cyclone Mandous over the southwest Bay of Bengal moved towards the west-northwest, and intensified into a severe cyclonic storm in the evening of December 8.
IMD officials said, “The cyclone is being monitored by the Doppler weather radar Karaikal and Chennai. It is very likely to move northwest and cross north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and the adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts as a cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 65 to 75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph during midnight of Friday and during the early hours of tomorrow, December 10.”