Cyclone Maha

Syllabus subtopic: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclones etc., geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including water bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

News: Cyclone Maha likely to bring heavy rain to south Gujarat from Nov 6

Prelims focus: about cyclone Maha, regions affected by its impact

Mains focus: on cyclones, their formation and effects

About cyclones:

• Cyclone refers to any spinning storm that rotates around a low-pressure center. The low-pressure centre is also referred to as the 'eye' of the storm, which is well known for being eerily calm compared with the areas under the spinning 'arms' of the storm.

• You could say that the eye is watching what's going on down below, so it needs a clear path, but the arms are where all the action happens because this is where the storm is throwing out all of its rain and wind.

How are cyclones formed?

• To form a cyclone, warm, moist air over the ocean rises upward from near the surface. As this air moves up and away from the ocean surface, it leaves is less air near the surface. So basically as the warm air rises, it causes an area of lower air pressure below.

• Air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in to the low pressure area. Then this new “cool” air becomes warm and moist and rises, too. And the cycle continues.

• As the warmed, moist air rises and cools the water in the air forms clouds. The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating from the ocean surface.

• As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the centre. It is very calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure. Higher pressure air from above flows down into the eye.

• Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land because they are no longer being “fed” by the energy from the warm ocean waters. However, they often move far inland, dumping many centimetres of rain and causing lots of wind damage before they die out completely.

Types of Cyclones:

1. Tropical cyclones are what most people are familiar with because these are cyclones that occur over tropical ocean regions. Hurricanes and typhoons are actually types of tropical cyclones, but they have different names so that it's clear where that storm is occurring. Hurricanes are found in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, and typhoons are found in the Northwest Pacific. If you hear 'tropical cyclone,' you should assume that it's occurring in the South Pacific or the Indian Ocean, but for this lesson, we'll use it to refer to all types of tropical ocean cyclones.

We can also further describe tropical cyclones based on their wind speeds. They are called categories 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, increasing with intensity and wind speed as the number increases. A category 1 cyclone is the weakest, with wind speeds of 74-95 mph. A category 5 cyclone, on the other hand, is extremely dangerous and has the potential for major damage. Category 5 cyclones have wind speeds of 155 mph and above!

2. Polar cyclones are cyclones that occur in polar regions like Greenland, Siberia and Antarctica. Unlike tropical cyclones, polar cyclones are usually stronger in winter months. As you can see, these storms really do prefer colder weather! They also occur in areas that aren't very populated, so any damage they do is usually pretty minimal.
3. A mesocyclone is when part of a thunderstorm cloud starts to spin, which may eventually lead to a tornado. 'Meso' means 'middle', so you can think of this as the mid-point between one type of storm and the other. Tornadoes all come from thunderstorm clouds, but not all thunderstorm clouds make tornadoes. In order for a tornado to occur, part of that cloud has to spin, and though you can't really see this happening, this is the intermediate, or 'meso' step from a regular cloud to a dangerous spinning cloud running along the ground.

Depending upon its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred by different names:

Typhoons in Western North Pacific

Willy-willies in Australia

Baguio in Philippine Islands

Hurricanes around North America

Taifu in Japan

Cyclone in the Indian Ocean