புலி வருது !! புயல் வருது !!- ~ Cyclone Ditwah !!

 

வங்கக்கடலில் ஏற்பட்டுள்ள காற்றழுத்த தாழ்வு மண்டலம் ... .. புயலாக உருமாறி, ...... அருகே கடற்கரையை கடக்கலாம் .. .. பெருத்த ஓசையுடன் அதிவேகத்தில் நிலப்பகுதியை நெருங்கும் போது - நிறைய பொருட்சேதம் ஏற்படும் 

-used to be  the usual weather bulletin.  In recent times, we have too many people, announcing so many things and just like a Coin toss – by law of probability some may turn true !!  So in social media we keep hearing predictions on how the Cyclone is going to behave and how long it would rain  

 

In the past week or so, we have heard so much of  புலி வருது !! புயல் வருது !!-   "புலி வருது !! புலி வருது !!"  நீதிக்கதையில் "பொய் சொல்லும் சிறுவன்'  ஒரு நாள்  உண்மையைச் சொன்னாலும் மக்கள் நம்பவில்லை.    

Ditwah was just a ‘cyclonic storm’, the second weakest category. There are four categories of cyclones stronger than this, based on the wind speeds associated with them, and their damage potential.  But it devastated Sri Lanka – killing more than 450, displacing 1.5 million and causing economic loss estimated to be around $7 billion 

Social media threatened that it would hit our coast too .. for  the third straight day, winds from the remnants of Cyclone Ditwah battered Chennai and surrounding districts on Wednesday as the weakened weather system stalled unusually close to the Tamil Nadu coast, which meteorologists say has prolonged heavy rainfall across the region.  

Ditwah emerged from a low-pressure system that had developed in the southwest Bay of Bengal around November 25. This area in the north Indian Ocean basin is not commonly known for cyclone formation, but two favourable conditions happened at the same time, making the emergence of Ditwah possible. The Intertropical Convergence Zone, a region near the equator where northeast and southwest trade winds converge, resulting in lots of clouds and thunderstorms, was quite active during that time. Simultaneously, a system of equatorial waves — disturbances in the atmosphere that happen periodically in this region — also developed. The interaction of these two systems provided the required fuel for the emergence of Ditwah on November 27.  

The system was about 90 km northwest of Batticaloa on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Winds associated with Ditwah ranged between 60 and 90km/hr, meaning that it was a low-intensity cyclone but its landfall caused devastation.  Once a deep depression, Ditwah has now weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area along the North Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coastline. Despite this, its slow inland drift has kept rain bands rotating over Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and northern coastal districts, triggering repeated bursts of heavy rainfall since early Tuesday.  

Meteorologists say Ditwah’s stall, rather than its intensity, is what has made it impactful.  The movement speed of Cyclone Ditwah varied, but it generally moved slowly,   it experienced a "remarkable slowdown" at one point, moving as slowly as 2-3 km/h, which led to prolonged, heavy rains in the region, is what is stated now.

 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
3.12.2025
The pic of White Tiger had its background changed with AI assistance.