Cyclone Nivar makes landfall, rain hits Tamil Nadu

The landfall of Cyclone Nivar started round 10:30 pm, in keeping with India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) newest climate bulletin on Wednesday night time. The wind velocity is anticipated to be between 120 and 130 kmph, gusting upto 145 kmph when the cyclone will make landfall, the IMD stated in its bulletin at 9:30 pm. It additional stated that the very extreme cyclonic storm lay 50 km east-northeast of Cuddalore, 40 km east-southeast of Puducherry and 120 km south of Chennai.

Earlier within the day, 1000’s of households had been evacuated throughout Chennai and coastal districts of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday at the same time as torrential rains, robust winds and excessive tides continued to batter the state. “As many as 1,21,152 people have been evacuated across the state including Cuddalore, Villupuram, Nagapattinam, Ariyalur, Perambalur,” stated Phanindra Reddy, principal secretary and commissioner, state’s catastrophe administration and mitigation division.

Life got here to a standstill as electrical energy provide was interrupted in a number of components of Chennai and different districts as a whole bunch of timber and electrical energy poles had been uprooted. Buses and automobiles had been seen stranded on roads and subways, forcing commuters to wade by knee-deep water. Several houses in low mendacity areas had been additionally flooded with water. “People have been advised to not come out until district authorities announce that it is safe,” stated Reddy.

The landfall is anticipated between Karaikal and Mamallapuram round Puducherry throughout midnight and early hours of November 26 with a wind velocity of 12-130 kmph gusting to 145 kmph. “Even after landfall, the system is likely to maintain its cyclone intensity for about six-hours and weaken gradually,” the climate workplace stated.

Airport operations (home and worldwide flights) on the Chennai airport had been suspended from 7pm on November 25 to 7am on November 26. As of 8pm, 2,707 folks together with 525 kids in reduction camps in Chennai. All main arterial roads in Chennai have been closed till additional. Around 465 authorities ambulances have been stationed in seven coastal districts throughout the state.

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On Tuesday, IMD stated that Nivar would make landfall as a really extreme cyclonic storm within the night hours however on Wednesday morning IMD’s bulletin stated landfall was anticipated within the night. “A delay is seen in timing of the landfall owing to rather slow movement of the cyclone. But there is no change from the expected intensity of very severe cyclone, during the time of landfall. The slow movement realised has been due lighter steering winds in which the Cyclone is embedded as well as due to change in direction of movement, as had been predicted,” added Devi.

The cyclone warning issued by IMD on Wednesday night was upgraded to “Red” class from “Orange” class owing to the injury and very heavy rainfall anticipated within the area related to landfall. “A red warning in case of Cyclone represents the 4th stage of warning, which includes the post landfall outlook as well. In the post landfall outlook, we will include the likely movement and adverse weather likely in those districts, which might fall along the expected track of the system after landfall. This is usually issued nearly 12 hours prior to the expected landfall,” Devi defined.

Even after landfall, the system is prone to preserve its cyclone depth for about 6 hours after which weaken regularly. Under its affect rainfall at most/many locations with heavy to very heavy falls at a couple of locations with extraordinarily heavy falls (over 20 cm) prone to happen over Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupattur, Vellore districts of Tamil Nadu and Chittoor, Kurnool, Prakasam; Cuddappa districts of Andhra Pradesh and adjoining southeast Telangana on November 26.

After 6pm, 5,000 cusecs of surplus water was launched from Chembaramakkam reservoir into the Adyar river which is a rise from 1,000 cusecs launched on Wednesday midday. “It will keep going up as the inflow goes up,” stated Reddy. “We will release water in a controlled manner,” stated chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami after he inspected the Chembarambakkam reservoir which is about 30km from Chennai within the adjoining Kancheepuram district. “Adyar river has the capacity to carry 60,000 cusecs. Government is taking all precautions.”

Braving the rains, civic employees, police personnel, NDRF and SDRF cleared water-logging, fallen timber and poles and evacuated households to safer areas. Armed forces are on standy-by with helicopters and ships prepared for rescue operations. The earlier cyclone to hit Tamil Nadu was Gaja (categorised as a really extreme cyclonic storm) in November 2018. It claimed 46 lives and left a path of destruction leaving lakhs of individuals homeless. “This cyclone may not cause that amount of damage but it will bring a lot of rainfall,” stated former IMD director Y E A Raj.

AIADMK and DMK leaders and employees additionally took half in reduction work. Stalin carrying rain gear offered help to households residing in inundated areas corresponding to Kolathur, Choolai and Villivakkam. BJP cancelled its Vetrivel Yatra (victorious spear march) as a result of cyclone and joined within the reduction work. Chief Minister Palaniswami introduced a public vacation on Thursday throughout 16 districts in Tamil Nadu.

In Puducherry, the place part 144 is imposed, 2,200 folks have been shifted to 285 reduction centres. “The next few hours are crucial. We hope there is no major casualty or damage to property,” stated the union territory’s collector, T Arun.

Independent scientists stated warming of oceans as a consequence of local weather change was resulting in extra intense cyclones and harmful storm surges. “Now we have a La Nina in the Pacific, that is cool conditions in the Pacific that makes the local environmental conditions favorable for cyclogenesis in the Bay of Bengal. During the last 40 years, six cyclones – of the severe cyclone category- hit the Tamil Nadu coast in November. Out of these six, five of them coincided with La Nina like conditions in the Pacific. So that means to some extent we were expecting a cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal during this time – and it is not a surprise,” Roxy Mathew Koll, Scientist on the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and co-author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Oceans and Cryosphere report stated in an announcement on Wednesday.

“The case of Cyclone Nivar is similar to that of Cyclone Ockhi in several ways. In November 2017, Cyclone Ockhi intensified rapidly from a moderate cyclone to a very-severe-cyclone in 24 hours, resulting in death of 844 in India and Sri Lanka. We found that unusually warm ocean temperatures favoured its evolution from a depression to cyclone in 9 hours and then to a very-severe-cyclone in 24 hours. The Bay of Bengal is part of the warm pool region, where the temperatures are generally about 28-29°C in November and occasionally exceeding 30°C. These high temperatures are generally conducive for cyclogenesis. On top of that the global warming element is there – this time the temperature anomalies are about 0.5-1°C and in some regions reaching 1.2°C, based on buoy and satellite estimates,” he added.