Powerful Cyclone Sidr Set to Ravage India and Bangladesh.

Very severe cyclonic storm Sidr is churning across the waters of the Bay of Bengal, about 400 miles south of Kolkata, and is on course to make landfall on the border between India and Bangladesh within hours. According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC), which monitors storms in this region, Sidr is packing sustained wind of 150 miles per hour with gusts up to 184 miles per hour making this the equivalent to a strong category 4 storm. The storm is forecast to weaken slightly before landfall under the influence of unfavourable upper level winds. However, Sidr poses an extreme danger to coastal areas of north east India and Bangladesh.

The region is one of the most densely populated low lying areas in the world and is susceptible to catastrophic storm surges. “There are two reasons that make Bangladesh so surge prone,” says Derek Ortt, a meteorologist at the University of Miami. “The first is that there is shallow water well into the Bay. This allows for the surge to pile up very high near the coastline. The second factor is the shape of the coastline. Bangladesh's coastline acts as a funnel, increasing the surge height even further.”

Almost 37 years ago to the day, a category 3 equivalent storm made landfall on Bangladesh resulting in the deaths of over 300,000 people. Dubbed the Bhola cyclone, the flooding due to storm surge is widely regarded as one of the most deadly natural disasters of the modern era. In 1991 at least 138,000 people were killed by another cyclone which made landfall on Bangladesh.

According to the Bangladeshi news website http://www.bangladesh-web.com the government have issued "great danger signal" number 10, the highest on the scale, for the region around Mongla Port in the south of the country. The website reports that thousands of volunteers are aiding local officials in evacuating people from areas at risk of flooding.

This storm has the potential to cause huge loss of life.

I will provide more updates on this situation as it develops.

For more information please consult:

Indian Meteorological Department's cyclone warning page - http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/rsmc.htm

Joint Typhoon Warning Centre - https://metocph.nmci.navy.mil/jtwc.php

In depth discussion on the storm - http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=99019&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=240