The ghost of super Cyclone Fani still haunts the entire Northeast.
Though the damage was much less than feared, it caused very rainfall across the entire north-eastern region that measured not in millimeters but in centimeters.
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Also read: Assam youth still missing in ‘Fani’ hit Odisha
Notably, whenever there is a storm in the Bay of Bengal, North or Central, these storms has its effect on the Northeast, irrespective of their track.
Also read: House collapse, landslide in Meghalaya as Cyclone Fani lashes State
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But according to skymetweather.com, even though Cyclone Fani stayed for a long period in the Bay of Bengal – from April 26 till May 3, the Northeast virtually escaped the fury, while it left behind a trail of destruction across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and the neighbouring country of Bangladesh.
Also read: Cyclone Fani leaves trail of destruction in Bangladesh; 17 dead, several hurt
According to the report, such storms cease weather activity till the time they are in the Bay of Bengal as winds concentrate around the systems. The moment they cross the coast and move inland into the Northeast it resumes with weather activities.
The report further stated that Cyclone Fani had an unusual track as majority of the systems forming in Bay of Bengal during April generally re-curve towards Bangladesh or Myanmar.
Also read: 5 things to know about cyclonic storm “Fani”
The forecast was that this storm would possibly give flooding rains covering large parts of the Northeast.
However, it didn’t happen so. The reason being, the storm had weakened very quickly. Even before hitting Bangladesh, Fani had weakened from extremely severe cyclone into a cyclonic storm at the time of landfall.
By the time it reached the Northeast, it was nothing less than a mere depression and then ‘quickly weakened into a low-pressure area’.
Even though Tripura and Mizoram had a passing effect of Cyclone fani, Meghalaya and Western Assam bore the brunt of heavy rainfall. However, the other states of the north-eastern region were spared by the cyclone.
During this time, the rainfall, according to the report, in Assam and Meghalaya were deficit by 33 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
During pre-Monsoon season, largest contribution comes from Arunachal Pradesh followed by Assam and Meghalaya and then comes Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
However, during the time of storm, Arunachal Pradesh was partly affected. After the passage of Fani, Assam turned normal and as on May 5 stands at normal with slightly surplus rains to the tune of nine per cent. Meghalaya too is inching towards normal with just three per cent less than the normal.
Arunachal Pradesh which had an earlier rainfall percentage of 47 per cent now stands at 44 per cent.
Similarly, hardly any difference has been seen in the rainfall percentage over Manipur. On April 24, it was deficit by 40 per cent and now it is deficit by 38 per cent.
The report further claimed that experts have predicted that in the next couple of days, the remnants of the system would continue to give scattered rains, especially over the eastern half with eastern Assam and Arunachal Pradesh experiencing scattered rainfall.