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Cyclone Jal

2010 cyclonic storm

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  • 2 chapters

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Meteorological history

On 12 October, a weak tropical disturbance formed within a monsoonal trough of low pressure in the South China Sea, just off the eastern coast of Borneo. For the next few weeks, the system stalled on the eastern coast of Bormeo, remaining disorganized, while the system barely affected the island of Borneo at all. During the last week of October, the storm detached from the moonsonal trough, and began slowly moving east. On 29 October, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) both reported that the system had begun to develop, already beginning to organize itself, about 550 km (340 mi), to the southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. During the next few days, the tropical depression strengthened slowly as it slowly moved towards the eastern border of the Indian Ocean. During this time, convection around the disturbance increased, but failed to organize around the storm's low level circulation center. Despite these unfavorable conditions, the storm managed to develop convection around its area of low pressure, and organized itself significantly. On 31 October, the Thai and Malaysian meteorological departments (TMD) reported that the disturbance had developed into a tropical depression, and initiated advisories on the system. From 31 October continuing into 1 November, the storm strengthened slightly as it continued moving towards the Indian Ocean, but not enough for it to become a tropical storm. Late on 1 November, the tropical depression crossed the Malay Peninsula, and entered the extreme eastern part of the Indian Ocean, causing the west Pacific agencies to cancel all their advisories on the storm, as it was no longer in the west Pacific Ocean. As soon as the system entered the extreme eastern border of the Indian Ocean, the India Meteorological Agency (IMD) immediately declared the storm a depression, and began issuing advisories on the system, because the system had already organized itself into a tropical depression in the west Pacific Ocean, on 31 October, which was a day before the system entered the IMD's area of responsibility. Later on 1 November, the system began showing signs of further, but slow organization, as the system continued moving west slowly. Early on 2 November, the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) also issued their first advisory on the system, and the IMD simply called it Depression, because the storm had not yet entered the Bay of Bengal. Later on that day, the IMD reported that the system had weakened into an area of low pressure, due to the effects of crossing the Malay Peninsula, but they forecast it to become a depression soon again, as the storm was moving over warm water. Late on 3 November, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert on the system, as it began reorganizing itself. Early on 4 November, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) upgraded the area of low pressure to a depression again, this time giving it the designation "BOB 05", as the system had now entered the Bay of Bengal. On 5 November, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) designated the system as Tropical Cyclone 05B.

Early on 6 November, the IMD upgraded Depression BOB 05 to a deep depression. Later, the deep depression strengthened further, prompting the IMD to upgrade it to a cyclonic storm, and was named Jal. The storm continued to grow and became a severe cyclonic storm by 6 November. Soon afterward, it was upgraded to a Category 1 Tropical Cyclone by the JTWC. On 7 November, Jal started weakening. Soon afterward, the IMD reported that Jal weakened into a Cyclonic Storm. Later that day, the JTWC downgraded Jal into a Tropical storm. Late on the same day, the IMD reported that the storm weakened into a Deep Depression. As a deep depression, the system made landfall at Chennai, a few hours later. The system continued to weaken and became a depression by early hours of 8 November. The depression continued to weaken until it dissipated into a remnant low on the same day. While on that very same day the IMD said that there is a possibility of re-strengthening of Jal's remnants over north east Arabian sea. And as the IMD said, the system moved into the Arabian Sea without weakening by early 9 November. But instead of moving across the Arabian Sea, the depression moved north along the western coast of India, restrengthening slightly, but not enough for it to regenerate. Within a few hours, the storm started moving inland, due to the prevailing winds. The system rapidly weakened as it moved farther inland over the next few days, causing severe flooding along the way. Early on 12 November, the remnants of Cyclone Jal were completely absorbed by a non-tropical low over the Himalayas.

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