Why in News

• Unusual formation due to the warming of the Bay of Bengal basin; protracted gestation could lead to its gaining strength

Details:

• Cyclonic storm Fani, which is lying about 600 km east of Vishakapatnam and 800 km south of Puri, is the first severe,
• cyclonic storm to have formed in April in India’s oceanic neighbourhood since 1976,
• according to records from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• While severe cyclones (defined as generating maximum windspeeds of 89-117 kmph) can form any time, they tend to be concentrated in November — after the monsoon — or around May, when the monsoon prepares to arrive in Kerala in June.
• This is a cyclone that’s forming due to the warming of the Bay of Bengal basin
• From 1965-2017, the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea have collectively registered 46 ‘severe cyclonic storms. Tropical cyclones in the Indian neighbourhood begin as ‘depressions’ or a gradual build-up of warm air and pockets of low pressure. About 35% of such formations intensify to ‘cyclones’ and only 7% intensify to ‘very severe cyclones’
• Cyclone Fani is expected to graduate to an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’ by Wednesday
• and make landfall in Orissa (as a very severe cyclonic storm)

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS)

• INCOIS is an autonomous organization of the Union Government. It comes under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• It was established in 1999 HQ: Hyderabad
• Its mandated is to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to government agencies, society, industry and the scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focussed research.