Dealing with a natural disaster like this would be challenging enough. But it occurred in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, complicating things enormously. The Super Cyclonic Storm ‘AMPHAN’ (pronounced as UM-PUN) crossed West Bengal – Bangladesh coasts as a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm with a speed of 155-165 kmph gusting to 185 kmph across Sundarbans, near Lat. 21.65°N and longitude 88.3°E and crossed at 1730 hrs IST, 20th May, 2020. near Bakkhali, South 24 Paragnas, about 70 km nearly to the south of Kolkata (West Bengal), 35 km northeast of Sagar Islands. a) Real-time Amphan Cyclone Landfall b) Cyclone Amphan swirls in the coast of West Bengal, as seen in the image acquired by the INSAT 3D satellite on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 1600 IST (Credit: Regional Indian Meteorological Department) High waves in the range of 2.9 – 5.0 meters are forecasted during 20:00 hours on 20-05- 2020 to 23:30 hours of 21-05-2020 along the coast of West Bengal from Digha to Bakkhali. Surface Current speeds vary between 125 - 171 cm/sec. Meteorological History:• 13 May,2020: An area of low pressure developed over the southeastern Bay of Bengal about 1020 km (635 mi) to the southeast of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. • 16 May,2020: the India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported that the area of low pressure had developed into a depression and designated it as Amphan Cyclone, while it was located about 1,100 km (685 mi) to the south of Paradip, Odisha. • 17 May,2020: Amphan became a severe cyclonic storm, and then began to undergo explosive intensification, according to IMD, winds speed increasing from 75 knots (140 km/h; 85 mph) at 18:00 UTC to 115 knots (215 km/h; 130 mph) – equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. Furthermore, the IMD upgraded Amphan to an extremely severe tropical cyclone on the IMD cyclone intensity scale. • 18 May,2020: Microwave imagery depicted that an eyewall replacement cycle was taking place with the presence of two distinct concentric eyewalls, typical for very intense cyclones. Additionally, increasing wind shear due to monsoonal movements meant that the system's eastern quadrant was continually being degraded, therefore making it become less symmetric. • 20 May, 2020: At around 5:30 p.m. IST (12:00 UTC), Amphan made landfall near Bakkhali, West Bengal with winds of 155 km/h (100 mph).
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