The years before 1980 featured the pre-1980 North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons. Each season was an ongoing event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. The North Indian tropical cyclone season has no bounds, but they tend to form between April and December, with peaks in May and November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean. Below are the most significant cyclones in the time period. Because much of the North Indian coastline is near sea level and prone to flooding, these cyclones can easily kill many with storm surge and flooding. These cyclones are among the deadliest on earth in terms of numbers killed.
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On 7 October 1737, a natural disaster struck the city of Calcutta (modern-day Kolkata) in India. For a long time this was believed in Europe to have been the result of an earthquake, but it is now believed to have been a tropical cyclone.[1][2] Thomas Joshua Moore, the duties collector for the British East India Company in Calcutta, wrote in his official report that a storm and flood had destroyed nearly all the thatched buildings and killed 3,000 of the city's inhabitants. Other reports from merchant ships indicated an earthquake and tidal surge were to blame, destroying 20,000 ships in the harbor and killing 300,000 people. It should be noted that the population of Calcutta at the time was around 3,000-20,000.[2][3]
Although there seems to be little evidence for the popular figure of 300,000 deaths [4] or for the existence of an earthquake at all, it is this number that shows up in popular literature.[3] At the same time, the figure of 3000 is only an estimation of the number of deaths inside the city itself.[5] This apparent incongruity in the data suggests a possible mix-up with the numbers for the 1839 Coringa cyclone mentioned in this article, which also suggest 20,000 sunk ships and 300,000 fatalities. Both of these figures may stem from the 300,000 figure in the 1737 super cyclone in the west Bengal region as neither one has similar numbers according to the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project's site.
Strong storm surge from a cyclone that hit Coringa, India destroyed the port and killed 20,000.[6]
An intense cyclone struck Orissa.[7]
On 25 November 1839, an enormous cyclone caused a 40-foot storm surge that hit Coringa, Andhra Pradesh, wiped out the harbor city, destroyed 25,000 ships and vessels in its bay, and killed 300,000 people.[6] Survivors never entirely rebuilt the city.
This intense cyclone moved into Bengal state. A total of 75,000 people and 6000 cattle perished during the storm.[8]
On October 5, a powerful cyclone hit near Calcutta, India, killing around 60,000 people.[9] The anemometer in the city was blown away during the cyclone. Over 100 brick homes and tens of thousands of tiled and straw huts were leveled. Most ships in the harbor (172 out of 195) were either damaged or destroyed.[10]The cyclone of 1864 destroyed the ports at Khejuri and Hijli.[11][12]
The anemometer in the city was blown away during the cyclone. A lack of storm surge minimized the overall damage from this system.[10]
This severe cyclone killed 80,000 people and caused significant damage.[8]
On October 31, a cyclone hit the Meghna River Delta area of India. The storm surge killed 100,000, and the disease after the storm killed another 100,000.[6]
A cyclone had formed near the Laccadive Islands on May 24, 555 kilometres (345 mi) west of southern India. The SS Mergui encountered the cyclone off the Horn of Africa, 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Socotra on June 1 and reported it stronger than the tropical cyclone which struck Calcutta in 1864. Just before midnight on the night of June 1, the Diomed reported winds of hurricane force and a pressure of 984 millibars (29.1 inHg). The ship Peshawar reported a westerly hurricane at the east end of the Gulf of Aden towards midnight on the night of June 2. At noon on June 3, the Tantallon reported a pressure of 943 millibars (27.8 inHg) near 12.5N 45.5E. On June 3, the German corvette Augusta, the French dispatch boat Renard, and the British ship SS Speke Hall were lost in the storm in the Gulf of Aden. The system continued westward and shrank in scale as it moved into the entrance of the Red Sea, crossing the coast of Djibouti.[13]
An intense cyclone struck Orissa.[7] it killed one person.
This system formed off the west coast of India during the first week of June and moved northwest towards the Arabian peninsula. Approaching the Gulf of Oman, strong winds and heavy rains affected Sur during the afternoon on June 4. Rain spread west that evening towards Muscat, where winds increased to hurricane-force from the north-northeast early on June 5. The eye of the storm made landfall at Sohar at dusk on June 5, eventually dissipating well inland. Heavy rains fell at the hospital in Muscat, where 11.24 inches (285 mm) were recorded. This led to flooding which took several hundred lives. Several thousand date trees were uprooted by the storm's winds and carried away by its floods. Several homes were leveled in Muscat and Mutrah. Fifty perished from downing near the coast or being buried by debris. Overall, 727 people lost their lives.[13]
An intense cyclone struck Orissa.[7]
In 1895, a cyclonic storm hit the Makran coast in Balochistan province in modern day Pakistan.[14]
In May 1902, a cyclonic storm struck the coast in the vicinity of Karachi.[14]
In June 1907, a tropical storm struck the coast near Karachi.[15]
On October 16, a cyclone hit near the India/Bangladesh border, resulting in around 40,000 fatalities.[6] A wind gust of 225 km/h (140 mph) was recorded.
On 27 July 1944, a cyclone left some 10,000 people homeless in Karachi.[16]
This significant storm killed 750 people and led to a loss of 30,000 cattle.[8]
In 1948, a tropical storm made landfall along the Makran coast in Balochistan province in Pakistan.[14][17]==
This system first became a low-pressure area near the Laccadive Islands on May 19, tracking northwest towards the Arabian peninsula. The system made landfall at Raysut on May 24. At Salalah, skies clouded over on May 23 as the pressure fell significantly. Winds turned northerly before midnight that night. At 1 a.m. on May 24 the peak of the storm's winds arrived. Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 70 knots (130 km/h) and the pressure at Salalaha fell to 968 millibars (28.6 inHg). Many vessels offshore, including two large passenger ships, went to pieces. Five buildings collapsed and several roofs were blown away by the cyclone. Salalah recorded 82 millimetres (3.2 in) of rain at their airport. A total of 141 lives from the ship Samha were taken during this tempest.[13]
6,000 deaths can be attributed to a cyclone that hit the eastern portion of Pakistan what was known then as East Bengal state on October 10.
On May 19, a tropical disturbance formed over the Laccadive Islands, before tracking northwest towards the Arabian peninsula. The system achieved cyclone intensity on May 22. A United States Weather Bureau research flight flew into the 12 nautical miles (22 km)-wide eye of the hurricane-strength system, and found a central pressure of 947 millibars (28.0 inHg). A ship 111 kilometres (69 mi) west of the system reported winds of 68 knots (126 km/h). At Salalah, a strong northerly wind set in during the morning of May 25. Later in the day, winds increased to gale force and a sandstorm reduced visibility to 400 metres (1,300 ft). Later in the day of May 26 winds again increased to gale force and another sandstorm reduced visibility to 500 metres (1,600 ft). As winds increased to 60 knots (110 km/h) the sandstorm became more severe, with visibility restricted to 50 metres (160 ft). Late on the night of the 26th, winds shifted to northeast and heavy rains fell across the region through the morning hours. Skies remained cloudy with periods of rain into May 28. A total of 230 millimetres (9.1 in) was recorded at Salalah.[13]
On May 28, a cyclone hit present-day Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan province), causing 22,000 fatalities due to storm surge and flooding.[18]
It made landfall in Tharparkar and Hyderabad district in Sindh province in Pakistan on 12 June.[14][19] However it caused a great loss of life and property in the province.[14] It killed 450 people and left some 400,000 people homeless.[16]
Two cyclones that hit on May 11 and June 1 killed a total of 47,000 people.
A cyclone hit East Pakistan on December 15, causing about 10,000 casualties.[20]
On October 12, an intense cyclone struck the state of Orissa and left complete devastation along its path.[6]
The 1970 Bhola cyclone was a devastating tropical cyclone that struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and India's West Bengal on November 12, 1970. It was the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times.[21] Up to 500,000 people lost their lives in the storm, primarily as a result of the storm surge that flooded much of the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta. This cyclone was the sixth cyclonic storm of the 1970 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, and also the season's strongest, reaching a strength equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.
The cyclone formed over the central Bay of Bengal on November 8 and travelled north, intensifying as it did so. It reached its peak with winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) on November 12, and made landfall on the coast of East Pakistan that night. The storm surge devastated many of the offshore islands, wiping out villages and destroying crops throughout the region. In the most severely affected Thana, Tazumuddin, over 45% of the population of 167,000 was killed by the storm.
The Pakistani government was severely criticized for its handling of the relief operations following the storm, both by local political leaders in East Pakistan and in the international media. The opposition Awami League gained a landslide victory in the province, and continuing unrest between East Pakistan and the central government triggered the Bangladesh Liberation War, which concluded with the creation of the country of Bangladesh.
On October 27 a tropical depression formed in the Bay of Bengal. It tracked northward, steadily strengthening until reaching a peak of 115 mph winds. The cyclone struck Cuttack, a city in Orissa, India, on October 29, and dissipated 2 days later. The storm surge and flooding from the system caused 10,800 fatalities.[22]
This system killed 80 people and 150 cattle.[8] Remarkably, it is also seen on Apollo 17.
This system killed 10 people and 40,000 cattle.[8]
It is the second strongest cyclone ever to hit the Arabian peninsula after Cyclone Gonu.
The monsoon trough spawned a tropical depression on November 14. It tracked westward, becoming a tropical storm on the November 15 and a cyclone on November 16. A break in the subtropical ridge pulled the cyclone northward, where it slowly strengthened to a peak of 130 mph winds. It hit the Andhra Pradesh coastline on November 19 at that intensity, and dissipated the next day. Strong winds, heavy flooding, and storm surge of 5 meters high killed 10,000 people,[22] left hundreds of thousands homeless, killed 40,000 cattle.[8] and destroyed 40% of India's food grains.
This system killed 700 people and 300,000 cattle.[8]