Cyclone Aila and Sunderbans

28-May-09

11-May-2009

Cyclone Ailia was not a strong storm, but its heavy rains and storm surges were enough to swamp the Mouths of the Ganges River in Bangladesh and India. Some islands in the Bay of Bengal and the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans region were inundated and still cut off from relief and rescue workers as of May 29, 2009. Clean drinking water was an acute problem: tidal surges continued to wash salty water inland over damaged levees, and salt water cannot be decontaminated with regular water purification tablets, according to reports from BBC news.

This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the flooding on May 28, 2009 (top), compared to the conditions on May 11, prior to the storm. Made from a combination of visible, shortwave-, and near-infrared light, the image highlights standing water, which appears blue. Vegetation is neon green, and bare ground is tan. Clouds are light blue or white.

Even prior to the storm, pockets of standing water appear in the Sundarbans and other low-lying areas; the first storms of the rainy season (generally June-September) may have already begun. But a dramatic increase in flooded areas is obvious in the post-storm image, despite the patchy clouds. Distributaries in the Sundarbans are wider and coastal areas of Orissa state (lower left) and West Bengal state (northeast of Orissa) in India were pale blue, rather than the light tan they were in the pre-storm image.

The large images provided above are at MODIS' maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of the area in a variety of resolutions and formats, including photo-like natural color.

Good close up snap of Cyclone "Aila"

Mild Chennai summer till 20-May-09

As the khatri veyyil' ends, Chennaiites can heave a sigh of relief. May, traditionally the hottest month, has been comparatively pleasant.

Reason? The sea breeze blew in early enough to contain the heat radiation. Unlike in the previous two years, the mercury touched 40 degrees Celsius only on four days this year. In 2007, it climbed over 40 C on 12 days, and last year it touched 40 and above on 16 days. The pleasanter weather

has come in a year when summer showers have been deficient. According to the Met department, Nungambakkam recorded 17 mm of rain between March and May while Meenambakkam was deficient by 42 mm, as against the normal 79 mm.

"The timely onset of the sea breeze has kept the temperature under control, since clear skies and sea breeze control heat radiation," said Y E A Raj, deputy director-general of meteorology, Regional Meteorological

Centre (RMC). "When the sea breeze sets in, the day temperature will drop by two or three degrees in one hour, and since they blow for 12 hours a day in May, the weather will be pleasanter," he added. According to him, strong westerly winds will impede the onset of sea breeze, and make the temperature warmer. Barring on May 13, 14, 23, and 25, the arrival of sea breeze has been close to normal. In May 1910 and in May 2003, Chennai recorded 45 degrees Celsius.

According to RMC director S R Ramanan, "A low pressure blocked a good part of the solar radiation and aided in maintaining comfortable levels this May."

A Ramachandran, director, Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation, Anna University, pointed to a 0.2 degree rise in the mean value of day temperatures during the khatri over the last two decades. According to him, man-made causes are likely to impact radiation levels in future

Mainland weather lapses into pre-monsoon times

May 28 Weather conditions seem to have reverted to pre-monsoon coordinates with a signature north-south trough (or wind discontinuity) reappearing along 'the trunk' of mainland India.

The northern limit of monsoon as on Monday passed through Mangalore, Dharmapuri, Chennai, Paradip, Balasore, Bankura and Gangtok. No further progress has been made ever since.

UNSTABLE WEATHER

Opposing wind streams from the northwest and the southeast of the peninsula merge along the formation and cause instability. The IMD has forecast rain or thundershowers in the region over the next three days.

Residual moisture from erstwhile cyclone Aila is available over east and northeast of the country. Rain or thundershowers are possible at a few places over the Indo-Gangetic plains until Sunday. This would also bring down maximum temperatures by 2-4 deg Celsius over the region.

ANDAMAN RAINS

Meanwhile, isolated heavy rainfall has been warned of over Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the next two days. The Canadian Meteorological Centre saw a circulation spinning up here and heading north-northeast to drive rains into southern Myanmar by Sunday.

The Thailand Met Department observed that 'rather strong' monsoon prevailed over the Andaman Sea and the Thai Gulf on Thursday. Torrential rainfall has been warned of in the region with isolated heavy spells. Ships have been advised to proceed with cation until Sunday. A 24-hour forecast spoke of 'very cloudy' conditions with fairly widespread thundershowers and isolated heavy rain. Southwesterly winds may reach speeds of up to 35 km/hr. Fresh activity would be triggered in the Arabian Sea also during the next three days, an IMD outlook said.

PACIFIC CYCLONE

The Climate Prediction Centre (CPC) of the US National Weather Services said enhanced rainfall is likely over the Arabian Sea, southern India to Southeast Asia during the week ending June 1.

It attributed this to the prevailing Indian and Southeast Asian monsoon, above-normal sea-surface temperatures in some areas and interaction with an extra-tropical circulation (westerly system to the north of Himalayas but mainly impacting south-east Asia).

In what is being seen as prejudicial to monsoon over mainland India, the CPC sees the threat of tropical cyclone development for parts of South China Sea (just east of the Bay of Bengal) and adjoining west Pacific.

A tropical cyclone spinning up could do to the monsoon what Tropical Cyclone Aila has already managed to disrupt wind flows and appropriate incoming moisture to itself.

Cyclone Aila and Bangladesh

Millions of people have been left homeless after large tidal waves struck the two countries

Cyclone Aila is causing widespread damage along the coast. Rising flood waters there are forcing thousands of residents from their homes.

Floods ravaged coastal parts of Bangladesh Monday the 25th, leaving thousands of families homeless.

Those fortunate enough to escape the rising flood waters walked to temporary shelters, while others were left stranded.

[Mosheleuddin, Villager]:
"The water from the sea entered our village and flooded our homes. All our houses were flooded. No dry place remains."

The storm surge from Aila washed away dozens of shrimp farms and flooded rice fields.

With Aila tracking towards the coast the Bangladesh Weather Bureau has kept storm warning in place for the ports at Chittagong, Mongla and Cox's Bazar.

Almost 40 have perished in Bangladesh.

This poor south Asian country is battered by storms every year.

A cyclone in November 2007 ravaged a large part of the country's coast, killing nearly 3,500 people and displacing around two million.

Cyclone Aila and Kolkata

The cyclonic storm Aila hit the Indian city of Calcutta and nearby areas, killing more than 30 people, before weakening and heading north.

Watch this video ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMF3UXKCYsg

and

India monsoon loses pace

India's annual monsoon rains, which hit the country's mainland on Saturday, has lost pace and there has been no advancement for the last two days, the weather deparment said on its website on Wednesday.

Till May 25, the southwest monsoon advanced over entire Kerala and Tamil Nadu, parts of coastal Karnataka, entire northeastern states, and most parts of West Bengal, the Indian Meteorological Department said.

"There is no further advance of monsoon till today, i.e. 27th May 2009," the department said.

Monsoon reached the south-western state of Kerala on May 23, ahead of the scheduled June 1.

Here's the northern limit of monsoon..

The northern limit of monsoon as on 25^th May 2009, passed through Lat. 13.0ºN/Long 60.0ºE, Lat. 13.0ºN/Long 70.0ºE, Mangalore, Dharmapuri, Chennai, Lat. 15.0ºN/Long 83.0ºE, Lat. 17.0ºN/Long 85.0ºE, Paradip, Balasore, Bankura and Gangtok.

Cyclone Aila aftermath: "Cyclone Aila Kills 168 in South Asia"

A cyclone that tore into southern Bangladesh and eastern India on Wednesday has killed at least 168 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, according to relief workers and news agencies.

The death toll was expected to rise through the night as rescuers reached rural villages cut off by floodwaters.

The Food and Disaster Management Ministry said Cyclone Aila had killed 100 people in Bangladesh, and a government official in West Bengal state in India put the number of dead at 68, according to The Associated Press.

Storm surges in coastal areas of Bangladesh were particularly deadly, disaster officials said, as nearly half a million people sought refuge in temporary shelters. Fishing boats also were damaged and vast areas of rice paddies and cropland were flooded with salty seawater.

Nijhum Dwip, a low-lying coastal island with 25,000 residents, was reportedly submerged.

"We're quite worried about this island, because reports are coming in that houses and fields have been totally washed away," said Nick Southern, the Bangladesh country director for the aid agency Care. "We are trying to get there today by boat, but the cyclone has made travel almost impossible."

In India, video reports from the city of Calcutta showed snapped power lines, uprooted trees and roofs being torn from houses and commercial buildings. The heavy rains also caused massive mudslides in the Darjeeling tea district, where more than 20 people had died, the A. P. reported.

The cyclone also lashed the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and a Unesco World Heritage Site that straddles the India-Bangladesh border. The area is an important home to the Royal Bengal tiger, and the A.P. reported that at least one tiger retreated from the rising waters into a home. Game wardens tranquilized the tiger and planned to release it after the flooding subsided.

The same area was struck in 2007 by Cyclone Sidr. More than 3,500 people died in that storm and 2 million more were displaced.

Cyclone Aila swallows Sunderbans tigers

It's not just residents of Kolkata who bore the brunt of Cyclone Aila. Forest wardens fear that as the cyclone tore through the Sunderbans

flooding the mangrove forests, it may have killed more than a dozen of the highly endangered Bengal tigers

.
As the human toll from Monday's cyclone rose to 64, beat officers and range officials in the Sunderbans feared hundreds of herbivores and at least a dozen tigers might have been swept away by the giant waves that lashed the forests. While a tiger had sneaked into the Jamespur village wading through the flood waters and was tranquillised early on Tuesday morning, 20 crocodiles and two spotted deer were found dead.

The full extent of the damage will be known only after an assessment by forest teams. As per the last census, the Sunderbans had 265 tigers.

Pintu Mirdha of Jamespur got the shock of his life when he spotted a male tiger crouching in his waterlogged cowshed. Mirdha managed to shut the cowshed door and informed the forest department. But forest guards had to wait for the water to recede to get close to the animal. Neighbours were asked to evacuate as the animal paced up and down the locked cowshed. At around 1pm, when the water level went down during low tide, the male tiger was tranquillised.

"It swam into the village that was left flooded after the cyclone. Since most villagers weren't present at the submerged huts, no one noticed the animal," said Subrat Mukherjee, field director, Sunderban Tiger Reserve.

"A storm like this has never hit the Sunderbans in the last three decades. Going by the extent of damage to the villages, the state of the forest could be terrible. Forests remained under eight feet of water till late Tuesday afternoon. Immediately after Aila hit, it had gone up to 20 feet," said Mrinal Chattopadhyay of the Institute of Climbers and Nature Lovers.

"Even if tigers manage to swim to higher grounds, deer and wild boars must have been swept away," he said. Wardens fear that even if tigers survived the giant waves, the lack of prey will certainly kill them.

But some forest officials were cautious. "We shall study the damage once the water level goes down," said Subhendu Bandopadhyay, divisional forest officer, South 24-Parganas. Beat wardens, however, said no assessment would be possible until the waters recede and that could take weeks. By that time many of the carcasses would have disintegrated to nothing.

Original from:: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cyclone-Aila-swallows-Sunderbans-tigers/articleshow/4581985.cms

Heavy rain batters Kanyakumari

Normal life was thrown out of gear in Kanyakumari district following heavy rain in various places on Tuesday.

Students who had passed SSLC and higher secondary examinations were put to hardship when they went to the employment office or special camps set up by the district administration to register their names. Office-goers also found it difficult to reach their destinations.

Fishermen did not venture into sea owing to rough weather.

Movement of vehicles was restricted as rainwater flooded roads in Kottar, Putheri, Vadaserry, Thuckalay and Colachel.

Natarajan of Therperambuvilai near Marthandam sustained grievous injuries when a coconut tree fell on his house. He was admitted to a hospital for treatment. Banana plantations were damaged at Boothapandi, Kadukkarai, Anjugramam, Kulasekaram, Thuckalay, Ethavilai and surrounding areas by rain and gale.

The maximum rainfall of 104 mm was recorded at Chittar I followed by 96 Chittar II, 77.2 in Perunchani, 76 in Pechipparai, 71.7 in Surulode, 57.2 in Kottaram, 56.2 mm in Boothapandi, 38.5 in Kannimar, 27 in Myladi and 25.6 in Aralvoimozhi.

Owing to heavy rainfall, salt production was affected in Anjugramam, Palkulam, Swamithoppu and surrounding areas.

Water level in Pechipparai dam stood at 36.80 feet and the inflow was 478 cusecs. Water level in Perunchani stood at 34 feet and the inflow was 101 cusecs.

Original from:: http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/27/stories/2009052752880300.htm