The year 2020 has been stormy so far! After cyclones Amphan and Nisarga, Nivar is heading towards Tamil Nadu is expected to make its impact on Wednesday.

The southern parts of the nation are bracing for the cyclone Nisar. Cyclone Nivar is forecasted to cross the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coast between Karaikal and Mamallapuram on Wednesday leading to very heavy rainfall in the southern part of the country.

However, it is not the first main cyclone which will have its landfall in this year or the last 12 months. Here are some important cyclones to have occurred in the country since January:

Amphan: Cyclone Amphan was the first pre-monsoon super cyclone of this century and arose from the Bay of Bengal. It caused huge destruction in West Bengal and Odisha. It also caused damage in neighbouring nation Bangladesh. Shaped on May 16, Amphan dissipated on May 21, leaving widespread damage in its track, claiming over 100 lives, most of which were from West Bengal.

BOB 03: A depression formed in the Bay of Bengal, Indian Meteorological Department named it as BOB 03. The very next day after the identification in October, the BOB 03 hit the north Odisha-West Bengal coastline and caused minimal destruction of the lives and property.

Nisarga: Within just two weeks of Amphan, Cyclone Nisarga struck the Indian subcontinent. The cyclone made its impact on India’s financial hub Maharashtra. Six people lost their lives after the cyclone made landfall in Konkan belt of the state leading to huge damage. Gujarat along with Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were also on high alert though they escaped its rage. Formed on June 1 and dissipated on June 4, Cyclone Nisarga was the strongest tropical cyclone to hit Maharashtra since June 1891.

THE NAME GAME

The names for tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are proposed by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, the UAE, Oman, Bangladesh, Maldives, Iran, Myanmar, Thailand, Qatar and Saudi Arabia as per the formula agreed by World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in its session in 2000.

Each nation provides 13 names. India had reportedly proposed few names including Tej, Marasu, Gati, Neer, Aag to name a few. The panel members’ name is registered alphabetically nation-wise, beginning with Bangladesh followed by India, Iran and more. The names for the cyclones are used consecutively column-wise.

Nivar, suggested by Iran is the third name to be used from the new list of names for North Indian Ocean Cyclones, released in 2020.