Cyclonic Storm Nisha ( IMD designation: BOB 07, JTWC designation: 06B) was a fairly weak but catastrophic tropical cyclone that struck

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, and India which killed over 200. It was the ninth

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

of the

2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season The 2008 North Indian cyclone season was one of the most disastrous tropical cyclone seasons in modern history, with tropical cyclones leaving more than 140,000 people dead and causing more than US$15 billion in damage, making it the c ...

, and the seventh tropical cyclone in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

that year.

Meteorological history

On November 24 an area of low pressure formed over land in Sri Lanka. Later that day the

Joint Typhoon Warning Center The Joint typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The JTWC is responsible for the issuing of tropical cyclone warnings in the North-West Pacific Ocean, South P ...

assessed the low-pressure area's chance of becoming a significant tropical cyclone within 24 hours as 'poor', due to the minimal convection near the

low-level circulation center The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of tropical cyclones. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area, typically in diameter. It is surrounded by the ''eyewall'', a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weat ...

. The next morning the JTWC issued a

Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert A Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA) is a bulletin released by the U.S. Navy-operated Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii or the Fleet Weather Center in Norfolk, Virginia, warning of the possibility of a tropical cyclone forming ...

on the low-pressure area, stating it had a 'good' chance of becoming a significant tropical cyclone within 24 hours, as the Low Level Circulation Center was moving into the

. Two hours later the IMD upgraded the area of low pressure to Depression BOB 07. Three hours later the

India Meteorological Department The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India. It is the principal agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology. IMD is headquarter ...

reported that the depression had intensified into a Deep Depression whilst remaining stationary. Later that day the JTWC upgraded the Deep Depression to Tropical Cyclone 06B and reported that the depression had wind speeds equivalent to a tropical storm, on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. Early on November 26, the India Meteorological Department upgraded the deep depression to a

Cyclonic Storm In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

and named it Nisha. Later that day as Nisha moved northwest towards India, both the JTWC and the IMD reported that Nisha had reached its peak wind speeds of 55 kts (63 mph 102 km/h ) 45 knots (52 mph 83 km/h ). Early the next day the IMD reported that Cyclonic Storm Nisha had made landfall in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India, at 0030 UTC. Later that day as the IMD reported that Nisha had weakened into a deep depression, The JTWC issued their final advisory on Nisha. The IMD then reported that Nisha had weakened into a Depression and then issued their last advisory the next day, reporting that Nisha had weakened into a well-marked area of low pressure.

Preparations and impact

Sri Lanka

Fifteen people were killed when Nisha hit northern Sri Lanka on November 25, 2008, causing heavy rains and flooding that reportedly displaced between 60,000 and 70,000 people in Vanni and 20,000 people in

Jaffna Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...

district. Jaffna recorded the highest rainfall since 1918, of 520.1 mm of rain in one week, with the 26 November total rainfall (389.8 mm) being the highest in nine decades.

India

At least 189 people were killed by the heavy rains and floods caused by the Nisha in

. Some places have recorded extreme rainfall, notably

Orathanadu Orathanad (or Mukthambalpuram; sometimes Orathanadu) is a town in Thanjavur district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is recognised as a Town Panchayat. It is located at a distance of 33 km from Thanjavur and 35 km from Pattukkotta ...

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

District where over 660 mm of rain fell in a 24-hour period, breaking the 65-year-old record of highest daily rainfall in Tamil Nadu. In two days, Orathanadu registered 990 mm of rainfall. Previously the highest amount of rainfall in a day was 570 mm registered by

Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is the city and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important port during the British Raj. While the early history of Cudda ...

on May 18, 1943. During the four-day period from 25 through 28 November, Orathanadu received 1280 mm of rainfall, making it as the 4th wettest Cylone in India to date. A map showing the most affected areas was released by

ReliefWeb ReliefWeb is a humanitarian information portal founded in 1996. The portal now hosts more than 720,000 humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent vehi ...

. Damage in India totaled to 3789

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

s, or 800 million in 2008 USD.

References

External links