Cyclone Gulab

  • As many as three people were killed in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha after Cyclone Gulab made landfall at Kalingapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Two fishermen lost their lives after the cyclone hit their boat in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district, while one person was swept away in Odisha’s Ganjam.
  • The cyclone is likely to move west north west towards Odisha-Chhattisgarh and weaken into a deep depression. The name Gulab was suggested by Pakistan.
  • India has a bi-annual cyclone season that occurs between March to May and October to December. But on rare occasions, cyclones do occur in June and September months. Cyclones are less common during the June to September monsoon season, as there are limited or almost no favourable conditions for cyclogenesis due to strong monsoon currents. This is also the period when the wind shear — that is, the difference between wind speeds at lower and upper atmospheric levels — is very high. As a result, clouds do not grow vertically and monsoon depressions often fail to intensify into cyclones.
  • Only 50 cyclones formed in September between 1891 and 2020, as against 124 in October and 145 in November, which are the main cyclone generating months, according to data from the IMD.