2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: India Meteorological Department, Joint Typhoon Warning Center

Cyclone Bulbul-Matmo

Cyclone Bulbul, which made landfall between West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts, kills 10 in West Bengal.

The cyclone was a strong tropical cyclone which struck Vietnam and the Indian state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. It is only the fourth tropical cyclone ever recorded to regenerate over the Andaman Sea, having crossed Southeast Asia overland (thus sharing with the name Matmo in operational Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) advisories).
Upon strengthening into a cyclonic storm, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) assigned the name Bulbul.

A cyclone is a large scale air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure.

Tropical Cyclones

Tropical cyclones form only over warm ocean waters near the equator. To form a cyclone, warm, moist air over the ocean rises upward from near the surface. As this air moves up and away from the ocean surface, it leaves is less air near the surface. So basically as the warm air rises, it causes an area of lower air pressure below.
Air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in to the low-pressure area. Then this new “cool” air becomes warm and moist and rises, too. And the cycle continues.
As the warmed, moist air rises and cools the water in the air forms clouds. The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating from the ocean surface.
As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the centre. It is very calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure. Higher pressure air from above flows down into the eye.

Important Information

It is only the fourth tropical cyclone ever recorded to regenerate over the Andaman Sea, having crossed Southeast Asia overland