A cyclone storm, in a rare meteorological phenomenon in the month of August, is brewing over the Saurashtra-Kutch region of Gujarat which is expected to emerge over the Arabian Sea on Friday and travel towards the Oman coast. The IMD said the deep depression over Saurashtra and Kutch is likely to move west-southwestwards and emerge over the northeast Arabian Sea off Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts and intensify into a cyclonic storm.
The storm will be called Cyclone Asna, a name suggested by Pakistan, when it intensifies into a cyclonic storm. This deep depression has caused torrents of rain over Gujarat for the past three days and is likely to move west wards along the coast of Pakistan and Iran.
As per the weather office, the depression would emerge into the northeast Arabian Sea off Kutch and adjoining Saurashtra and Pakistan coasts in next 12 hours and intensify into a cyclonic storm, the IMD stated in its latest release.
How cyclones are named?
In general, the tropical cyclones are named by various warning centers to simplify communication between forecasters and the general public regarding forecasts, watches and warnings. The names of the cyclones are intended to reduce confusion in the event of concurrent storms in the same basin. After the storms develop sustained wind speeds of more than 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph), names are generally assigned to them from predetermined lists, depending on the basin in which they originate.
Some of the tropical depressions are named in the Western Pacific, while other tropical cyclones contain a significant amount of gale-force winds before they are named in the Southern Hemisphere.
Earlier, it was a standard practice to give personal (first) names to tropical cyclones, they were named after places, objects, or the saints' feast days on which they occurred.
Cyclone Asna: What's its meaning?
This deep depression once intensifies into a cyclonic storm, it will be named as Cyclone Asna. Pakistan has provided the name, which means "the one to be acknowledged or praised" in Urdu.
Cyclone Asna: Key things to know
-
According to IMD, Gujarat, and particularly Saurashtra and Kutch, will continue to witness extremely heavy rainfall.
-
This will be the first cyclonic storm to develop over the Arabian Sea in August since 1976, the weather office said.
-
In 1964, a brief cyclone formed near the South Gujarat coast and weakened as it approached the shore.
-
Prior to this, another cyclone in 1944 strengthened after entering the Arabian Sea but then weakened while still at sea.
-
The cyclone in 1976 developed over Odisha, moved west-northwestwards, emerged into Arabian Sea, made a looping track and weakened over northwest Arabian Sea near Oman coast, it said.
-
Over the Bay of Bengal during the last 132 years, there have been a total of 28 such systems in the month of August.
-
According to IMD data, the Saurashtra and Kutch regions have received 799 mm of rainfall between June 1 and August 29 this year as against the normal of 430.6 mm for the same period. This accounts to 86 per cent more rainfall than normal for this duration.
