Comments on: Tropical Cyclone Chapala: Historic Storm https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/10/29/tropical-cyclone-chapala/ Thu, 29 Oct 2015 17:56:32 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Eric Lund https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/10/29/tropical-cyclone-chapala/#comment-473401 Thu, 29 Oct 2015 17:56:32 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21741#comment-473401 India effectively splits the northern Indian Ocean into two separate basins: Bengal to the east and Arabia to the west. Neither basin is all that large, and the southwest (wet) monsoon tends to suppress tropical cyclone formation. Nevertheless, the public advisory identifies this storm as 04A, meaning that at least three other storms have reached tropical depression strength in the Arabian part of the northern Indian Ocean this year.

The Bengal side has a history of nasty tropical cyclones, including the deadliest in history (which hit Bangladesh in, IIRC, 1971). Category 3 or higher cyclones are less common on the Arabian side, and few cyclones hit the Arabian peninsula; the ones that make landfall usually do so in Pakistan or northwest India. This one looks especially nasty; I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near landfall. Flash flooding is going to be a major problem in that climate and terrain.

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