IMD forecasts cyclonic storm near Andhra coast, to be named Murasu
A well-marked low over the southeast Bay of Bengal is very likely to become a cyclonic storm, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast at 14:25 IST on 31 October. It is expected to reach waters near the Andhra Pradesh coast around the evening of 2 November. Gale winds of up to 100 kmph are forecast off that coast.
Syllabus: Prelims · Current Affairs & IR; Prelims · Geography; GS1 · Geophysical Phenomena
Why this matters for UPSC
GS1 geography and GS3 disaster management: cyclones and their warnings. Prelims can ask IMD's wind bands and who names storms; Mains, preparedness for back-to-back cyclones.
Why it matters
A fishing family on the Andhra Pradesh coast now faces a second storm warning within a week. Boats must stay ashore for days, which means lost income, and homes already battered by Arnab could be hit again before repairs are done. For district officials, back-to-back storms shrink the time to clear drains, check shelters and move people from low-lying areas. A warning that spells out what the wind and rain may do, such as felled trees, blocked roads or flooded fields, lets them act before the storm arrives. The larger issue is how a coastal State keeps people safe when cyclones come in quick succession and each forecast carries some uncertainty.
Prelims pointers
- On IMD's scale a deep depression is a depression whose maximum sustained wind lies between 50 and 61 kmph (28-33 knots).
- A cyclonic storm has maximum average surface winds of 34-47 knots; a severe cyclonic storm has 48-63 knots (89-117 kmph).
- The WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones agreed to name North Indian Ocean cyclones at its session in Muscat, Oman, in 2000.
- One identification system covers both the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea; names are given by the RSMC for Tropical Cyclones, New Delhi.
- North Indian Ocean names are used in sequence, column by column, and are not rotated every few years as Atlantic and Eastern Pacific lists are.
- The current list was adopted in April 2020, with member countries listed alphabetically; Bangladesh's Arnab precedes India's Murasu in its third column.
- Yanam, named in IMD's rain warnings beside Coastal Andhra Pradesh, belongs to the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the India Meteorological Department's classification of cyclonic disturbances, consider the following statements:
1. A cyclonic storm has maximum average surface winds in the range of 89 to 117 kmph.
2. A depression has maximum sustained surface winds between 31 and 61 kmph.
3. A depression with maximum sustained winds of 50 to 61 kmph may be called a deep depression.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only. The 89-117 kmph band belongs to the severe cyclonic storm, not the cyclonic storm.
Statement 1: incorrect. A cyclonic storm has maximum average surface winds of 62-88 kmph (34-47 knots); 89-117 kmph marks a severe cyclonic storm on the IMD scale.
Statement 2: correct. A depression has maximum sustained surface winds of 17-33 knots, or 31-61 kmph, as RSMC New Delhi defines it.
Statement 3: correct. Within a depression, a maximum sustained wind of 28-33 knots (50-61 kmph) lets the system be called a deep depression.
Eliminate: Statement 1 gives the severe cyclonic storm's band to the cyclonic storm, so it is false. Out: (a), (c), (d).
Trap: Near-miss figure. The bands sit next to each other, and the question shifts the cyclonic storm up one band so a student who half-remembers the scale picks it.
Remember: Depression 31-61, cyclonic storm 62-88, severe cyclonic storm 89-117 kmph.
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