Rising frequency of cyclones linked to climate change, field experts warn
track was accurate, the effect on Mumbai was diminished as the landfall happened at least 75km south of Alibag, in Diveagar.
IMD’S prediction of extremely heavy rainfall was not reported in several areas of Mumbai. The city, however, recorded a gale wind speed of 72kmph at its southern tip, Colaba, quelling fears that the administrative and health care resources, already stretched on account of its coronavirus disease (Covid-19) caseload, would not be able to cope with a natural disaster.
Private forecaster Skymet Weather said it was a close shave for the city, which has so far recorded about 43,000 Covid-19 cases and is making attempts at keeping its health care system from being overrun. “Our observation is that the impact on Mumbai was less because the landfall location was shifted somewhat south of Alibag. There was only light to moderate rains in Mumbai during and immediately after landfall,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president, climate and meteorology at Skymet Weather.
Visuals of lacerating rain, swaying trees and waves crashing against tetrapod barriers that line the Konkan coast beamed on television screens as people
nNEW DELHI: The severe cyclonic storm which made landfall in Maharashtra on Wednesday is an indication of an increasing frequency of severe cyclones developing in Arabian Sea in the past decade, a trend that studies have linked to climate change.
In the past two years itself, there have been seven cyclones formed in the Arabian Sea, though, according to IMD, the ratio of cyclones in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal — which just witnessed the destructive cyclone Amphan on May 21 — is 1:4. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last year came out with a special report in which it said that extreme rainfall and extreme sea level events associated with some tropical cyclones are being seen to have a cascading impact on coastal areas. “There is emerging evidence for an increase in annual global proportion of Category 4 or 5 tropical cyclones in recent decades,” it said.