North Indian Ocean Tropical Cyclones from 2010 to 2022: Loss of Economy, Fatalities and Regions affected

The post gives you the data on CYCLONES over a decade, the cyclonic storm categorization by IMD, the regions of the world that suffered the hit, loss of economy, and reported deaths.

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As we all know the weather disaster has increased progressively in the last century. If we focus on factors, there are two sets of factors that contribute to global weather-related disasters. The first correlated set of factors is ocean heat level, tropical cyclone, sea-level rise, increasing storm intensity, higher precipitation rate, frequency of intense cyclones, and surge flooding. Second, the population density and urbanization vulnerability specifically in coastal cities and in small islands in developing countries with disproportionate risk calculation. The socioeconomic incongruity, damaged ecosystem health, and unplanned fragile infrastructures can be the other considerable reasons.

The bitter truth is the public health hazards and their consequences after a cyclone will continue if some robust solutions are not followed to mitigate and adapt these progressive risk dynamics.

Tropical and Temperate Cyclones

Whenever we heard Cyclone, we imagine fatalities and property damage, and that’s true!  

Both Tropical and Temperate cyclones are powerful storm winds that can sustain for hours to days and push the ocean waters creating storm surges and potential floods over an area. In some countries, cyclones can create agitated hurricane movements and can be formed into potential Typhoons, Tornadoes, and Twisters. Tropical cyclones can occur only in the summer months in areas with high temperatures and very low pressure, which causes an imbalance of the natural climate causing an increase of the sea level water temperature beyond 26 degrees centigrade and with a high relative humidity beyond 700m. The temperate cyclones can occur any time of the year as they follow the frontal weather systems.

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Most Dreaded North Indian Ocean Tropical Cyclones from 2010 to 2022

The North Indian Ocean cyclone season is the most dynamic type of cyclone season in the North Indian Ocean. The two main oceans in the region are the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal. The meteorological data of the region are mostly analyzed officially by India Meteorological Department (IMD). The season sees 8 depressions and 5 types of storms mostly in between the months of April and June, and October and December.

IMD categorized the severity of cyclonic storms broadly into 7 categories considering the causing factor as wind speed (WS), Depression (WS 31-50 km/hr), Deep Depression (WS 51-62 km/hr), Cyclonic storm (WS 63-88 km/hr), Severe Cyclonic Storm (89-117 km/hr), Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (WS 118-165 km/hr), Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm (WS 166- 220 km/hr) and Super Cyclonic Storm (WS  ≥ 221 km/hr).

The Table below can give you an idea of the most affected cyclones from 2010 to 2022 considering the categorization done by IMD; severity, damage to the economy, and deaths ported as the three important factors.

Table: The cyclonic storm details from 2010-2022.

Year	Name of Cyclone	Dates of occurrence	Category as per IMD	Countries and areas affected	Death cases	Economical losses (in $)
2010	Laila	May 17-May 21	Severe Cyclonic Storm	Sri Lanka, India	65	117 million
	Phet	May 31-June 7	Very Severe Cyclonic Storm	Oman, Pakistan, India	47	861 million
	Giri	Oct 20-Oct 23	Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm	Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Yunnan	167	359 million
	Jal	Nov 1-Nov 8	Severe Cyclonic Storm	Thailand, Malaysia, Andaman Islands, India	117	1.73 billion
2011	BOB 01	Feb 2- Feb 3	Depression	Sri Lanka	18	297 million
	BOB 04	Oct 19-Oct 20	Deep Depression	Bangladesh, Myanmar	215	1.64 million
	Keila	Oct 29- Nov 4	Cyclonic Storm	Oman, Yemen	14	80 million
	Thane	Dec 25-Dec 31	Very Severe Cyclonic Storm	India	46	275 million
2012	Nilam	Oct 28-Nov 1	Cyclonic storm	Sri Lanka, India	75	56.7 million
2013	Viyaru	May 10-May 17	Cyclonic Storm	Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar
	ARB 01	Nov 8-Nov 11	Deep Depression	Somalia, Ethiopia	162	NA
	Phailin	Oct 8-Oct14	Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm	Malay Peninsula, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, Myanmar, Nepal	45	4.26 billion
	Helen	Nov 19-Nov23	Severe Cyclonic Storm	India	11	796 million
2014	Land 02	Aug 4-Aug 7	Deep depression	India, Bangladesh	47	NA
	Hudhud	Oct 7-Oct 14	Extremely severe cyclonic storm	Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, Visakhapatnam, Nepal	124	3.58 billion
	Nilofar	Oct 25-Oct 31	Extremely severe cyclonic storm	India, Pakistan	0	NA
2015	ARB 02	Jun 22-Jun 24	Deep depression	West India	81	260 million
	Komen	Jul 26-Aug 2	Cyclonic storm	Bangladesh, Myanmar, Northeastern India	187	678 million
	Chapala	Oct 28-Nov 4	Extremely severe cyclonic storm	Oman, Somalia, Yemen	8	≥ 100 million
	Megh	Nov 5-Nov 10	Extremely severe cyclonic storm	Oman, Somalia, Yemen	18	NA
	BOB 03	Nov 8-Nov10	Deep depression	South India, Sri Lanka	71	NA
2016	Roanu	May 17-May 22	Cyclonic storm	Sri Lanka, East coast of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Yunnan	135	2.03 billion
	BOB 04	Nov 2-Nov 6	Depression	Malaysia, Thailand, India (West Bengal), Bangladesh	80	NA
	Vardah	Dec 6-dec 13	Very severe cyclonic storm	Sumatra, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India	47	3.37 billion
2017	Marutha	Apr 15-Apr 17	Cyclonic storm	Myanmar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Thailand, Yunnan	4	23,400
	Mora	May 28-May 31	Severe Cyclonic Storm	Sri Lanka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, East India, Northeast India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Tibet	135	297 million
	BOB 03	Jun 11-Jun13	Deep depression	Northeast India, Bangladesh	170	223 million
	BOB 04	Jul 18-Jul 19	Depression	Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh	7	34 million
	Land 01	Jul 26-Jul 27	Depression	West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh	152	2.18 million
	Ockhi	Nov 29-Dec 6	Very severe cyclonic storm	Sri Lanka, India, Maldives	318	920 million
2018	Sagar	May 16-May 20	Cyclonic storm	Yemen, Horn of Africa	79	30 million
	Mekunu	May 21-May 27	Severe Cyclonic Storm	Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia	31	1.5 billion
	Luban	Oct 6-Oct 15	Very severe cyclonic storm	Yemen, Oman	14	1 billion
	Titli	Oct 8-Oct 12	Very severe cyclonic storm	India (Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bangladesh)	89	920 million
	Gaja	Nov 10-Nov 19	Very severe cyclonic storm	Andaman Islands, Tamil Nadu (India), Sri Lanka	52	775 miilion
	Phethai	Dec 13-Dec 17	Severe Cyclonic Storm	India (East and Northeast)	8	100 million
2019	Pabuk	Jan 4-Jan 7	Cyclonic storm	Thailand, Myanmar, Andaman Islands	8	156 million
	Fani	Apr 26-May 4	Extremely severe cyclonic storm	Sumatra, Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, East India, Bangladesh, Bhutan	89	8.1 billion
	Vayu	Jun 10-Jun 17	Very severe cyclonic storm	Northern Maldives, India, Southern Pakistan, East Oman	8	140,000
	Bulbul	Nov 5-Nov 11	Very severe cyclonic storm	Myanmar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Eastern India, Bangladesh	41	3.37 billion
	ARB 07	Dec 3-Dec 5	Deep depression	Tamil Nadu	25	NA
2020	Amphan	May 16-May 21	Super Cyclonic Storm	India (West Bengal, Odisha), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan	128	13.6 billion
	Nisarga	Jun 1-Jun 4	Very severe cyclonic storm	Maharashtra, Goa	6	803 million
	BOB 02	Oct 11-Oct 14	Deep depression	India (Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra)	98	681 million
	Gati	Nov 21-Nov 24	Very severe cyclonic storm	Somalia, Yemen, Djibouti	9	1 million
	Nivar	Nov 23- Nov 27	Very severe cyclonic storm	Sri Lanka, India (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry)	14	600 million
	Burevi	Nov 30-Dec 5	Cyclonic Storm	Sri Lanka, India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala)	11	NA
2021	Taukate	May 14-May 19	Extremely severe cyclonic storm	India (Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Lakshadweep, Maldives, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Sindh, Sri Lanka, and West states)	174	2.1 billion
	Yass	May 23-May 28	Very severe cyclonic storm	Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bangladesh, India (East India and Uttar Pradesh), Nepal	20	2.84 billion
	Gulab	Sep 24-Sep 28	Cyclonic Storm	India (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana)	20	269 million
	Shaheen	Sep 30-Oct 4	Severe Cyclonic Storm	Balochistan, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sindh, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, India (Gujarat)	14	100 million
	BOB 05	Nov 10-Nov 12	Depression	India (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala), Sri Lanka	41	NA
2022	Asani	May 7-May 12	Severe Cyclonic Storm	Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha)	3	NA

 

The Must-Read Facts:

1970 Bhola Cyclone: The fatal cyclone recorded the deaths of 500, 000 people. It occurred in Bangladesh, the Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta region in the year 1970.

1999 Odisha Cyclone: Most intense and strongest Tropical cyclone occurred in Odisha, India in the year 1999.  The wind speed was around 260 m/hr with a low barometric pressure of 912 mbar or 26.93 in Hg. The cyclone reported 9887 fatalities in the state and damage to $4.44 billion economies.

Amphan: The costliest cyclone in terms of loss of economy and damages. The loss was around $13.6 billion with 128 reported deaths. It occurred in India (West Bengal, Odisha), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan in May 2020 and was declared a Super Cyclonic Storm by IMD.

Ockhi: The very severe cyclonic storm was the hazardous one causing 318 fatalities in Sri Lanka, India, and the Maldives in the year 2017. It caused damage worth $920 million.

Fani: The cyclone was declared an Extremely Severe Cyclonic storm in Apr 2019 causing damage worth $8.1 billion and reporting 89 deaths. The cyclone was the worst hit in the area of Sumatra, Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, East India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan.