Cyclone In Bangladesh

Cyclone In  Bangladesh

Cyclone a tropical storm or atmospheric turbulence involving circular motion of winds, occurs in Bangladesh as a natural hazard. The tropics can be regarded as the region lying between 30'N latitude and 30'S latitude. All the tropical seas of the earth with the exception of the south Atlantic and southeast Pacific give birth to deadly atmospheric phenomena known as tropical cyclones. On an average, 80 tropical cyclones are formed every year all over the globe.

Cyclone

The term cyclone is derived from the Greek word 'kyklos' meaning coil of snakes. The British-Indian scientist and meteorologist henry piddington coined the word 'Cyclone' to represent whirling storms expressing sufficiently the tendency to circular motion in his book The Sailor's Horn-book for the Law of Storms, published in 1848. Other meteorologists of the world immediately accepted the term and it is still current today. Satellite pictures of cyclones show that the nomenclature is very appropriate. Technically a cyclone is an area of low pressure where strong winds blow around a centre in an anticlockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and a clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. Cyclones occurring in the tropical regions are called tropical cyclones and those occurring elsewhere are called extratropical cyclones.

Tropical cyclones are usually destructive and affect Bangladesh and its adjoining areas. Tropical storms are called hurricanes in the American continent, typhoons in the Far East and cyclones in the South Asian subcontinent. In the West, hurricanes are identified with human names such as Mitchel, Andrew, Carol, Dorothy and Eve. In the South Asian region no such nomenclature is in use. The term 'cyclone' is at times applied to a mid-latitude depression but is now increasingly restricted to a tropical depression of the hurricane type, especially when it occurs in the indian ocean. A cyclone is called Tufan in Bangla, from the Chinese 'Tai-fun'.

Bangladesh is part of the humid tropics, with the himalayas on the north and the funnel-shaped coast touching the bay of bengal on the south. This peculiar geography of Bangladesh brings not only the life-giving monsoons but also catastrophic cyclones, nor'westers, tornadoes and floods. The Bay of Bengal is an ideal breeding ground for tropical cyclones. Cyclones are usually formed in the deep seas and hence their study has been very difficult. It is only with the advent of the Space age that weather satellites have provided valuable information about them. Direct studies of cyclones with aircraft reconnaissance are also being carried out by advanced countries. However, only a beginning has been made in Bangladesh towards the understanding of cyclones.