Cyclone Sitrang
Source : Indian Express
GS I : Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.
What is discussed under Cyclone Sitrang?
- How did it get its name?
- What is a Tropical Cyclone?
- How is a cyclone named?
Why in News ?
Recently At least 24 people were killed in Bangladesh as Cyclone Sitrang slammed into densely-populated, low-lying areas of the nation.
Key Facts
- After it crossed Bangladesh, Sitrang weakened into a deep depression.
Image by WikiImages from Pixabay - It further weakened into a low pressure area.
- The system now moving towards northeastern regions of India.
- It will cause widespread moderate to heavy rainfall over Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
- India Meteorological Department warned, winds with speeds reaching 40 to 50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph along and off the coast of West Bengal.
How did it get its name & what does it mean?
- Sitrang is the Thai name for it.
- It is a Thai surname.
- The name is one of 169 storms identified by IMD for 2020.
What is a Tropical Cyclone?
- A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain.
- Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water.
- They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface, which ultimately recondenses into clouds and rain.
- The strong rotating winds of a tropical cyclone are a result of the conservation of angular momentum imparted by the Earth’s rotation as air flows inwards toward the axis of rotation.
- Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and 2,000 km (62 and 1,243 mi) in diameter.
- Wind blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
- The opposite direction of circulation is due to the Coriolis effect.
How is a cyclone named?
- Who/Authority : World Meteorological Organisation, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (WMO/ESCAP) Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC).
- Why naming cyclone ?
- Avoid confusion if two or more cyclones are occurring simultaneously over the region.
- Naming helps in future reference.
- Who are the member countries ? : India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Maldives, Oman, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
- Naming from the list
- With 8 countries in 2004 there was a list of 64 names eight names from each country.
- Later years the member countries increased to 13 combined released 169 names of cyclones with 13 names from each countries.
- Conditions for naming :
- Names of the cyclones should be short, simple and easily understood.
- Culturally sensitive or convey any inflammatory meaning.
- India has, so far, proposed the names Gati (speed), Tej (speed), Marasu (musical instrument in Tamil), Aag (fire), Jhar (storm), Ghurni (whirlpool), Vega (speed) and Neer (water).
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