A storm is brewing in the Bay of Bengal and is expected to intensify into a cyclone on Sunday evening, packing a wind speed of over 75 km per hour, and move towards the coast of northern Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
If the weather system intensifies into a cyclone it will be called Asani, Sinhalese for 'wrath'. This would be the first cyclonic storm of the season as a similar weather event in March had fizzled out before it could acquire the strength of a cyclone.
The present weather system was expected to further intensify into a cyclonic storm on Sunday over east central Bay of Bengal and continue to move north-eastwards till May 10 and reach off the coasts of north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
According to a special bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the weather system had intensified into a depression, and at 1130 hours of Saturday lay 170 km west of Car Nicobar Island (Nicobar Islands) and 300 km south-south-west of Port Blair.
What is Cyclone Asani and how it got its name?
Cyclones and hurricanes that create havoc and destruction and even those that don’t, are often given such peculiar names. Cyclones were not identified by any name initially, but the tradition started with a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.
Tropical storms are termed differently in different parts of the world. They are called hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the Pacific, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. Any storm, whose wind speed reaches or crosses 74 miles per hour, is classified as a cyclone.
The naming of cyclones across the globe is a recent phenomenon. World Meteorological Organization is usually the apex body deciding the names. In India, or the storms arising in the Indian Ocean, the procedure of assigning names began in 2000.
As per the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), it is necessary to name tropical cyclones because there can be more than one such system operating in a particular zone
The names are kept according to the rules at the regional level. In the case of the Indian Ocean and South Pacific regions, the tropical cyclone names are allotted in alphabetical order. The name Cyclone Asani was suggested by Sri Lanka.
(with agency inputs)
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