Cyclone Fengal to make landfall over Puducherry: What is a cyclone?

Cyclone Fengal, which is expected to make upwind speeds of 80-90 kmph connected Saturday evening, is simply a tropical storm. The National Disaster Management Authority classifies cyclones broadly into 2 categories: extratropical cyclones and tropical cyclones. Here is what you request to cognize astir them.

First, what is simply a cyclone?

A cyclone is simply a large-scale system of aerial that rotates astir the centre of a low-pressure area. It is usually accompanied by convulsive storms and atrocious weather. As per NDMA, a cyclone is characterised by inward spiralling winds that rotate anticlockwise successful the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise successful the Southern Hemisphere.

What are extratropical cyclones?

Also known arsenic mid-latitude cyclones, extratropical cyclones are those which hap extracurricular of the tropic. They person “cold aerial astatine their core, and deduce their vigor from the merchandise of imaginable vigor erstwhile acold and lukewarm aerial masses interact”, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It added that specified cyclones ever person 1 oregon much fronts — a upwind strategy that is the bound betwixt 2 antithetic types of aerial masses. One is represented by lukewarm aerial and the different by acold aerial — connected to them, and tin hap implicit onshore oregon ocean.

What are tropical cyclones?

Tropical cyclones are those which make successful the regions betwixt the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. They are the astir devastating storms connected Earth. Such cyclones make erstwhile “thunderstorm enactment starts gathering adjacent to the centre of circulation, and the strongest winds and rainfall are nary longer successful a set acold from the centre,” NOAA noted. The halfway of the tempest turns warm, and the cyclone gets astir of its vigor from the “latent heat” released erstwhile h2o vapour that has evaporated from lukewarm water waters condenses into liquid water, the bureau added. Moreover, lukewarm fronts oregon acold fronts aren’t associated with tropical cyclones.

Tropical cyclones person antithetic names depending connected their determination and strength. For instance, they are known arsenic hurricanes successful the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the North Atlantic Ocean and the eastbound and cardinal North Pacific Ocean. In the occidental North Pacific, they are called typhoons.