Cyclone Nargis
Nargis is a Category 3 storm, the third-strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
Burma was already the poorest nation in South-east Asia, with about 90 per cent of its population living in poverty. Last autumn, a combination of rising prices and dissatisfaction with the regime led tens of thousands of citizens and Buddhist monks to take to the streets of the country's largest cities in a series of demonstrations. The protests were the largest for 20 years and rocked the government, which responded with a violent crackdown. Burmese exile groups believe
Cyclones
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of low atmospheric pressure characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere of the Earth. The generic term covers a wide variety of meteorological phenomena. These include tropical cyclones,and extratropical cyclones, so meteorologists rarely use "cyclone" without additional qualification.
Structure
Formation
Categorisation
Polar cyclone
Polar low
Extratropical
Subtropical
Tropical
Mesoscale
Extraterrestrial cyclones
Burma cyclone death toll could hit 63,000
The cyclone toll in Asia
See also
Structure
There are a number of structural characteristics common to all cyclones. Their center is the area of lowest atmospheric pressure, often known in mature tropical and subtropical cyclones as the eye. Near the center, the pressure gradient force (from the pressure in the center of the cyclone compared to the pressure outside the cyclone) and the Coriolis force must be in an approximate balance, or the cyclone would collapse on itself as a result of the difference in pressur
Formation
Cold-core cyclones (most cyclone varieties) form due to the nearby presence of an upper level trough, which increases divergence over an area that induces upward motion and surface low pressure. Warm-core cyclones (such as tropical cyclones and many mesocyclones) can have their initial start due to a nearby upper trough, but after formation of the initial disturbance, depend upon a storm-relative upper level high to maintain or increase their strength.
Categorisation
Each of the six main types of cyclone has further characteristics which define it as either a Polar cyclone, Polar low, Extratropical, Subtropical, Tropical, or Mesoscale.Tropical cyclones are also referred to as hurricanes.
Polar cyclone
Polar or Arctic cyclones are vast areas of low pressure. A polar cyclone is a low pressure weather system, usually spanning 1,000–2,000 kilometers, in which the air circulates in a counterclockwise direction in the northern hemisphere, and a clockwise direction in the southern.
Polar low
A polar low is a
small-scale, short-lived atmospheric low pressure
system (depression) that is found over the ocean areas poleward of the
main polar front in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The systems usually have a horizontal length scale of less than 1,000 km and exist for no more than a couple of days. They are part of the larger class of mesoscale weather systems. Polar lows can be difficult to detect using conventional weather reports and are a haz
Polar lows have been referred to by many other terms, such as polar mesoscale vortex, Arctic hurricane, Arctic low, and cold air depression. Today the term is usually reserved for the more vigorous systems that have near-surface winds of at least 17 m/s.
Extratropical
An extratropical cyclone, sometimes inaccurately called a cyclone, is a synoptic scale low pressure weather system that has neither tropical nor polar characteristics, being connected with fronts and horizontal gradients in temperature and dew point otherwise known as "baroclinic zones".
The descriptor "extratropical" refers to the fact that this type of cyclone generally occurs outside of the tropics, in the middle latitudes of the planet. These systems may also be described as "mid-latitude cyclones" due to their area of formation, or "post-tropical cyclones" where extratropical transition has occurred, and are often described as "depressions" or "lows" by weather forecasters and the general public. These are the everyday phenomena which along with anti-c
Although extratropical cyclones are almost always classified as baroclinic since they form along zones of temperature and dewpoint gradient, they can sometimes become barotropic late in their life cycle when the temperature distribution around the cyclone becomes fairly uniform with radius.
Subtropical
A subtropical cyclone is a weather system that has some characteristics of a tropical cyclone and some characteristics of an extratropical cyclone. It can form in a wide band of latitude, from the equator to 50°.
Tropical
A tropical cyclone is a storm system fueled by the heat released when moist air rises and the water vapor in it condenses. The term describes the storm's origin in the tropics and its cyclonic nature, which means that its circulation is counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Tropical cyclones are distinguished from other cyclonic windstorms such as nor'easters, European windstorms, and polar lows by the heat mechanism th
Tropical cyclones can produce extremely strong winds, tornadoes, torrential rain, high waves, and storm surges. The heavy rains and storm surges can produce extensive flooding. Although their effects on human populations can be devastating, tropical cyclones also can have beneficial effects by relieving drought conditions. They carry heat away from the tropics, an important mechanism of the global atmospheric circulation that maintains equilibrium in the Earth's tropo
Mesoscale
A mesocyclone is a cyclonic vortex of air, between approximately 2 and 10 km diameter within a convective storm. They can often be found in association with updrafts in supercells, where tornadoes may form. The term refers only to mesoscale cyclones found within convective storms, and does not apply to other cyclones on the mesoscale.[5] Storms with mesocyclones can feature strong surface winds and severe hail.
Extraterrestrial cyclones
Cyclones are not unique to Earth. Cyclonic storms are common on Jovian planets, like the Small Dark Spot on Neptune. Mars has also exhibited cyclonic storms. Jovian storms like the Great Red Spot are usually mistakenly named as giant hurricanes or cyclonic storms. However, this is inaccurate, as the Great Red Spot is, in fact, the inverse phenomenon, an anticyclone.
Burma cyclone
death toll could hit 63,000
By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon and Katie Franklin 2008 05 06
By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon and Katie Franklin 2008 05 06
Aid agencies are scrambling to mount a massive relief effort after military rulers in Burma, also known as Myanmar, said 22,464 people had been killed and a further 41,000 were missing feared dead after the weekend cyclone. Foreign minister Nyan Win revealed that more than 10,000 people had been killed in a single town, Bogalay, as he gave the first detailed account of the scale of the disaster. With the number of dead or missing growing by the hour a huge humanit
As United Nations agencies warned of a disaster in the south-east Asian country, the normally isolationist dictatorship issued a rare appeal for international assistance. The foreign minister asked Western diplomats for tents, medicine and water purification equipment. “We will welcome help ... from other countries, because our people are in difficulty,” he said. A first shipment of aid is expected to leave neighbouring Thailand later today.
Social welfare minister Maung Maung Swe told reporters that most of the town of Bogalay, one of the delta areas that bore the brunt of the storm's force, had simply been washed away. "Ninety-five percent of the houses in Bogalay were destroyed," he said. "Many people were killed in a 12-foot tidal wave." Satellite images from US space agency NASA showed virtually the entire coastal plain of the country, one of the poorest nations on the planet, under water.
The government also said it would proceed this weekend with a constitutional referendum as part of its slow-moving "road map" to democracy, except in the areas hardest hit by the disaster. America’s First Lady Laura Bush on Monday night called a press conference to promise aid to Burma - the first reaction from the White House since the scale of the crisis became clear. But she accused the junta of failing to warn its citizens via the state-run media of the danger they
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said the organisation "will do whatever (necessary) to provide urgent humanitarian assistance," and stressed that a disaster management team was ready to leave for Burma. Mr Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar met with Burma's UN Ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe. The talks focused on prospects for urgent grant allocations from the UN's $500 million Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), as well as communications and coordinatio
Gordon Brown pledged that Britain would do everything it could to ease the suffering in the disaster-hit state. Speaking to an audience of business leaders in central London, the Prime Minister said: "I believe nearly a million people are now need in need of food aid and we will have to help the families of those where people have died. "I want to pledge on behalf of the British Government that we will work with the whole international community to make sure that food aid is
The cyclone, which flattened thousands of buildings, ripped power lines, uprooted trees on key roads and disrupted water supplies, came days ahead of Saturday’s controversial referendum on a constitution which critics say will entrench military rule. The junta has insisted that it would press ahead with the vote, but many in Rangoon said that they had other priorities. The former capital, with a population of five million, took a direct hit. “We have no electricity, we have no w
Aid workers were meanwhile facing a desperate battle to help hundreds of thousands of Burmese. Western diplomats told The Daily Telegraph that the government had failed to make it possible for United Nations agencies to move swiftly to bring relief to thousands left without drinking water and shelter. A UN source said that the organisation can deliver the first supplies within 24 hours of an official request, which would open Burma’s tight borders to aid shipments. But h
A Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said of the generals who rule the country: “They are incompetent. They don’t care. “You’d have thought, with a military government, they would get cracking and sort it out, but somehow I don’t think it is going to be like that.”
An international aid worker based in Burma said: “Normally it takes two weeks to get permission to go into the field. At this point, they are not deviating from that procedure.”
Tropical cyclones are immensely powerful low-pressure weather systems capable of generating ten times as much energy as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Nargis devastated a vast swathe of the country after hitting the coast, flattening thousands of buildings, ripping power lines, uprooting trees on key roads and disrupting drinking water supplies.
Burmese state television said five regions with a combined population of 24 million people had been declared disaster zones. Survivors in the worst-hit region, the densely populated Irrawaddy Delta, face a growing risk of disease and possibly hunger. In Rangoon, the former capital and a city of five million people, the situation is dire after it took a direct hit from the storm.
The price of fuel has doubled since the cyclone struck, while many homes have been severely damaged and the water supply has collapsed. Women came out on to the streets to wash clothes in the gutters when it rained last night. Broken trees and electricity poles littered the roads of the city. There is also a danger that the price of food and other essentials could rapidly rise, adding to public discontent.
With the economy crippled by decades of misrule, and most people already struggling to meet their basic needs, many were quick to criticise the junta’s faltering response. “We are really suffering, but the government don’t care, they are happy enough,” said one man.
Analysts believe that if the referendum goes ahead, there could be a significant “no” vote and blatant vote-rigging by the generals. Circumstances exist for a political crisis to develop in what is already a dire humanitarian emergency. One diplomat said yesterday: “What on earth is going to happen to this poor country next?”
The devastation represents Asia’s worst natural disaster since the earthquake that killed more than 70,000 in Pakistan in 2005. The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 killed more than 200,000 in Indonesia and across the Indian Ocean. While the Red Cross has managed to distribute water purification tablets and mosquito nets, Save the Children estimated yesterday that more than 50,000 are without shelter in three towns in the Rangoon region alone. It said that people are ca
Win Myint, 38, a resident of Rangoon, told how he had fled his home moments before a tree ploughed into his home. He scooped up his two-month-old daughter and ran through driving rain and winds into the face of the storm to seek shelter at a Buddhist temple in the satellite city of Dagon. “We had to run for our lives during the storm at 3 am on Saturday,” he said. “We were frightened. We have nothing now. I don’t even have milk powder for my daughter. “She is sick n
Nov 12, 1970, Bangladesh: The country’s deadliest cyclone destroys Chittagong and dozens of coastal villages, killing around 500,000 people.
Nov 19, 1977, India: More than 10,000 people die when cyclone hits south-east Andhra coast. It disrupts life for 5.4 million people and damages 3.5 million acres of arable land.
May 24, 1985, Bangladesh: 11,000 people die in cyclone that hit Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and coastal islands.
April 29, 1991, Bangladesh: 143,000 people died after cyclone hits coast with 15ft tidal surge.
Oct 29, 1999, India: A “super-cyclone” hits the northeast state of Orissa, killing almost 10,000.
Nov 15, 2007, Bangladesh: Cyclone Sidr kills around 3,500.
May 3, 2008, Burma: Up to 10,000 feared dead and 3,000 more missing after cyclone hits Irrawaddy Delta and Rangoon.
See also
Hurricane or Tropical cyclone
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