Pre-1980 North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons
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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 the 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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[edit] 1700s
[edit] 1737 Calcutta Cyclone
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. 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 20,000.[1]
Although there seems to be little evidence for the popular figure of 300,000 deaths or for the existence of an earthquake at all, it is this number that shows up in popular literature. At the same time, the figure of 3000 is only an estimation of the number of deaths inside the city itself.
[edit] 1789 Indian Cyclone
Strong storm surge from a cyclone that hit Coringa, India killed 20,000.
[edit] 1800s
[edit] 1839 Indian Cyclone
A 40-foot storm surge from a huge cyclone that hit Coringa, India on November 25 killed 300,000 people.
[edit] 1864 Calcutta Cyclone
On October 5, a powerful cyclone hit near Calcutta, India, killing around 60,000 people.
[edit] 1876 Indian Cyclone
On October 31, a cyclone hit the Megna River Delta area of India. The storm surge killed 100,000, and the disease after the storm killed another 100,000
[edit] 1900s
[edit] 1942 Bengal Cyclone
On October 16, a cyclone hit near the India/Bangladesh border, resulting in around 40,000 fatalities. A wind gust of 225 km/h (140 mph) was recorded.
[edit] 1960 East Pakistan I Cyclone
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.
[edit] 1963 East Pakistan II Cyclone
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.
[edit] 1965 Pakistani Bengali Cyclones
Two cyclones that hit on May 11 and June 1 killed a total of 47,000 people.
[edit] 1965 Pakistani Cyclone
A cyclone hit near Karachi, Pakistan on December 15, causing about 10,000 casualties.
[edit] 1970 season
- Main article: 1970 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- See also: 1970 Bhola cyclone
A powerful cyclone that hit Eastern Pakistan on November 13 killed 500,000 people from storm surge, high winds, and flooding.
[edit] 1971 Orissa Cyclone
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 10,000 fatalities.
[edit] 1977 Andhra Pradesh Cyclone
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, left hundreds of thousands homeless, and destroyed 40% of India's food grains.
[edit] See also
- List of North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons
- List of tropical cyclones
- Tropical cyclone
- Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
- List of Pacific typhoon seasons
- List of Atlantic hurricane seasons
- List of Pacific hurricane seasons
