Cyclone Gulab- Key Features and Naming of Cyclones

Cyclone Gulab- Relevance for UPSC Exam

• GS Paper 1: Salient features of world’s physical geography– Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclones, etc.

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Cyclone Gulab- Context

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that Cyclone Gulab, which has turned into a deep depression after crossing the coast of Andhra Pradesh, could give birth to a fresh cyclone in the Arabian Sea.
  • IMD has issued ‘red’ and ‘orange’ alerts for meteorological subdivisions covering coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Vidarbha, Marathwada, Madhya Maharashtra, Konkan, Goa, and Gujarat till 30 September.
• Earlier, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, as the depression in the Bay of Bengal has intensified in cyclone Gulab.
  • Odisha evacuated about 40,000 people in six southern districts ahead of the storm.

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Cyclone Gulab- Key Points

• About: Cyclonic Storm ‘Gulab’ (pronounced as Gul-Aab) originated over Northwest & adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal.
• Naming of cyclone Gulab: The name ‘Gulab’ was proposed by Pakistan from the list of names approved by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

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Naming of Cyclones

• Origin: In 2000, WMO agreed to start assigning names for cyclones over the North Indian Ocean basin using a list of names suggested by the countries surrounding the ocean basin.
  • Initially, India expressed reservations about naming cyclones.
  • After four years of continuous deliberations, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) initiated the naming of the North Indian Ocean storm with ‘Cyclone Onil’ in September 2004.
• Process of Naming Cyclones:
  • There are six regional specialised meteorological centres (RSMCs) and five regional Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs) across the globe.
  • IMD’s RSMC in New Delhi is one among them that provides advisories to 13 countries in the north Indian Ocean basin: Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
  • RSMC, New Delhi is, therefore, responsible for naming cyclones over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea based on the suggested names from all these countries.

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What if Cyclone Gulab gives birth to a fresh cyclone in the Arabian Sea?

• Change of Name: the present system will be given a new name if the wind speed touches 68km/hr.
• It will only be the third such instance since 1996 when a cyclone after making landfall would further strengthen and re-emerge as a fresh system of ‘cyclone’ category in the North Indian Ocean region.
  • For Instance, very severe cyclone Gaja- formed in the Bay of Bengal- had crossed the Tamil Nadu coast and later re-emerged in the Arabian Sea from central Kerala.
  • Gaja brewed in the Bay of Bengal for nearly 10 days before making landfall and had one of the longest cyclone tracks covering 3,418 km.

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