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Cyclone Fengal
Context:
Puducherry recently experienced the landfall of Cyclone Fengal, causing widespread flooding and heavy rainfall.
Overview:
- Cyclone Fengal made landfall over Puducherry bringing strong winds and heavy rains to parts of Tamil Nadu.
- Infrastructure Damage: The cyclone has caused damage to roads, trees, and power lines, with ongoing efforts to clear debris and restore services.
- The Tamil Nadu government declared a holiday for educational institutions in the state, and IT companies were advised to allow employees to work from home.
- Rescue Operations: The Indian Army and NDRF have been involved in rescue operations, evacuating over 100 individuals in the first two hours.
- Current Status: As of December 1, 2024, it has weakened to a depression but continues to bring heavy rainfall to parts of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karnataka.
What is a Cyclone?
- A cyclone is a large-scale system of air that rotates around a low-pressure area, typically causing violent storms and inclement weather.
- Cyclones are characterised by inward spiralling winds that rotate in a counterclockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
- Mechanism: When the warm, moist air from the ocean surface rises upward, a lower air pressure area is formed below.
- Air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure rushes into this low pressure area, eventually rising, after it also becomes warm and moist.
- As warm, moist air rises, it cools down, and the water in the air forms clouds and thunderstorms.
- This whole system of clouds and winds gains strength and momentum using the ocean’s heat, and the water that evaporates from its surface.
Types:
- Extratropical cyclones (also called mid-latitude cyclones) occur outside the tropics and have cold air at their core.
- These cyclones derive their energy from the interaction of cold and warm air masses. They can occur over both land and ocean.
- They are always associated with one or more fronts—the boundaries between warm and cold air masses.
- Tropical cyclones develop between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer and are considered the most devastating storms on Earth.
- They form when thunderstorm activity intensifies near the centre of circulation, and the strongest winds and rains move closer to the centre.
- These cyclones derive energy from the latent heat released when water vapour from warm ocean waters condenses into liquid water.
- Often named based on their location and strength.
- For example: In the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the North Atlantic Ocean, and the North Pacific Ocean (east and central), these storms are called hurricanes.
- In the Western North Pacific, they are known as typhoons.
