At 13 days and 3 hours, Biparjoy longest duration cyclone since 1977: IMD
Cyclone Pebarjoy, which wreaked havoc in Gujarat earlier this month, was the longest-running cyclonic storm in the northern Indian Ocean since 1977, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday.
Biparjoy, the first cyclonic storm over the Arabian Sea this year, originated over the southeastern Arabian Sea on June 6, touched down over Saurashtra and Kutch on June 15 before weakening to a depression on June 18.
And IMD said in a report on the Biparjoy website that the cyclonic storm lasted 13 days and three hours (from depression to depression), more than twice the average life of severe cyclonic storms that lasted six days and three hours over the Arabian Sea.
The longest duration cyclone over the northern Indian Ocean developed over the Bay of Bengal and weakened over the Arabian Sea between 8-23 November 1977 with a lifetime of 14 days and 6 hours.
In recent years, extremely severe cyclonic storm Kyarr (October, 2019) over the Arabian Sea lasted nine days and 15 hours, while severe cyclonic storm Gaja (November 2018) over the Bay of Bengal lasted nine days and 15 hours.
Biparjoy also changed tracks nine times in its 2,525 km path which made it difficult for meteorologists to predict the path of the cyclone. It also intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm on June 11, but weakened to a very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS) by making landfall four days later.
The Met Office said Biparjoy moved very slowly during its lifetime with an average 12-hour transitional speed of 7.7 kilometers per hour versus the average speed for a VSCS class during the monsoon season over the Arabian Sea of about 15 kilometers per hour based on data during 1990-2013.
The weather system intensified rapidly in the formation and growth phase on June 6-7, but later fluctuated on a daily basis.
“The convective clouds associated with the system showed significant diurnal variations, with their intensity increasing twice in the afternoon and early hours,” IMD said.
The alerts were issued through more than 32.67 crore text messages using the National Disaster Management Authority’s Sachet protocol to different users in coastal areas of different states along the west coast.
Also, up to 5.63 lakh SMS were sent to fishermen through INCOIS (Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services) and 2.7 lakh SMS to registered users mainly from the general public in coastal states and disaster managers at central and state level.
Biparjoy was monitored with the help of satellite observations available from INSAT-3D, 3DR, SCAT SAT, ASCAT, microwave imagery, available vessels, monitoring buoys in the area and Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) in Bhuj and Jaipur, according to IMD.