Cyclone Arnab, Explained

[00:00:00] Kiran: Mics, camera, action, and welcome to another episode of Takaro. This time we're not going to be seeing or hearing Debbie today, but we're going to be talking about a cyclone - a cyclone named Arnab - and we're going to explain what a cyclone means. So as always, strap in and get ready for Takaro Explains Cyclones.
[00:00:35] Kiran: There is a storm that's been growing across the North Indian Ocean. If you look at the map and the globe, look at where India is, and where the Indian Ocean is - it's towards the bottom of India. And if you look towards the right, that's the Bay of Bengal.
[00:01:06] Kiran: Cyclone Arnab is the first cyclone of the 2026 North Indian Ocean season, and the strongest post-monsoon cyclone in the Bay of Bengal since 2014. It's a storm that grows from a low-pressure area into a very severe cyclone.
[00:01:29] Kiran: Let's try to understand what a cyclone is, because Arnab has just devastated a lot of the eastern states across India's coastline. A cyclone is a huge rotating storm system with a very calm center - the center is called the eye, and it's surrounded by towering thunderstorm clouds. You've probably seen it in movies, you've probably seen it in videos.
[00:01:55] Kiran: It basically brings three main dangers: destructive winds, torrential downpour, and a storm surge, which is when seawater is pushed onto the coast. Usually the storm surge is the deadliest part, because cyclones form only over warm tropical oceans, and they start weakening once they move more and more into the land - so the area where the sea touches land tends to be the worst-hit location.
[00:02:23] Kiran: So how does a cyclone form? Step one: the sea surface needs to be warmer than 26 to 27 degrees Celsius, which is very warm for water. That warm, moist air rises from the ocean, leaving low pressure below it - because every time something rises, it leaves a state of low pressure just below it.
[00:02:59] Kiran: The surrounding air rushes in to fill this gap, and that rises too. As the vapor condenses into clouds, it releases heat that fuels the storm. Earth's rotation - called the Coriolis effect - makes the whole system spin. In the Northern Hemisphere, where most of the land is, and where India is, the spin is anti-clockwise; in the Southern Hemisphere, it's clockwise.
[00:03:39] Kiran: Light winds at different heights let the storm strengthen more and more. Over land, the storm loses its warm-water fuel - remember, the heat going up and water vapor coming in is what creates that pressure system - but over land there isn't that water to create it, so as the storm reaches land and goes inward, it starts losing its strength.
[00:04:09] Kiran: Now, this is the scale used to measure these cyclones: it starts as a low pressure area, becomes a depression, a deep depression, a cyclonic storm, then severe, very severe, extremely severe, and finally a super cyclonic storm. They're steered by large-scale winds and pressure systems, and in the Bay of Bengal, cyclones usually track north or northeast - starting from the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, pushing up towards Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
[00:04:57] Kiran: Peak seasons for these cyclones are before the monsoon - April to June, when things are really hot and the monsoon starts cooling things down - or right after it, October to December. Once on land, they slow down and reduce in intensity, becoming depressions, but they can still create a lot of heavy rainfall inland.
[00:05:21] Kiran: With Arnab, it began as a low-pressure area on the 24th of October in the eastern Bay of Bengal, and became a cyclonic storm, Arnab, on the 26th of October. It started intensifying rapidly, becoming a very severe cyclonic storm within 18 hours.
[00:05:48] Kiran: This is the most amazing part - one tracker recorded winds going up to 222 kilometers per hour. 222 kilometers per hour, that is really fast. It made landfall on the coast of Andhra Pradesh as a very, very severe cyclonic storm, with winds at about 125 to 135 kilometers per hour on land.
[00:06:20] Kiran: You can imagine the kind of devastation that creates. It started weakening into a deep depression over Chhattisgarh as it moved further inland. In Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, about 180,000 - one lakh eighty thousand - people were evacuated. There was up to 30 centimeters of rainfall in these two states, and unfortunately there were people who died because of it. Power, roads and trees were falling, and houses were getting damaged.
[00:06:56] Kiran: So I started thinking - how are these names created, and who gives them these names? Cyclones are named from a rotating list agreed by the countries around the North Indian Ocean. It's that simple - and Arnab is actually a name that was contributed by Bangladesh.
[00:07:27] Kiran: If you think about this entire pressure system and storm in this part of the world, we call it a cyclone - in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Oman and Pakistan. But if you go to the US, the North Atlantic, the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico, the exact same thing is called a hurricane.
[00:07:56] Kiran: And if you travel east from India - towards Japan, the Philippines, China and Taiwan - it's called a typhoon, but it's exactly the same thing. So a hurricane, a typhoon, a cyclone - some places call it a tropical cyclone - it's all the exact same thing, just given different terminology in different parts of the world.
[00:08:20] Kiran: The science is the same everywhere: warm oceans cause rising air, which causes pressure systems, which intensify into a spinning storm. There are large-scale evacuations happening across all these regions, not just with Arnab, but in other parts of the world too.
[00:08:52] Kiran: I think this is something you'll start seeing more of with El Niño - we covered this in a previous episode. El Niño has been causing havoc as far as climate is concerned; a specific part of the Pacific Ocean is warming up so much this year that it's going to cause a lot of disruption to climate for the next year or year and a half.
[00:09:19] Kiran: You'll start seeing more of these storms. It's good to be prepared, it's good to understand the science behind it, and as always, make sure we all do our little bit to ensure this is a lot less of a problem in the future, from a climate change and ecosystem perspective. I'll leave you with that thought.
[00:09:42] Kiran: Go back to your class, your friends, your parents and your educators and talk about whether this is a factor of climate change - debate it, create a case study around it. takaropodcast.com now creates a complete package for every single episode we do, and it follows the curriculum in your school.
[00:10:12] Kiran: It creates a complete package - a case study, lesson plans, and ideas for experiments and ways to debate some of these conversations. I'd urge you to go to takaropodcast.com and check it out, and invite your friends, parents, grandparents and educators to do this with you, because it's extremely exciting. We've revamped the website, so go check it out and let me know what you think.
[00:10:45] Kiran: Now, Debbie's not here, so I'm going to be the quiz master for today. Here is our quiz question for this episode: a tropical cyclone like Arnab forms over the ocean, but which set of conditions is most important for it to develop and strengthen?
[00:10:54] Kiran: Is it a cold sea surface, strong winds, and dry air? Does it need a mountain? Is it monsoon winds blowing from the land to the sea? Or is it a warm sea surface with moisture-rich air and light winds at different heights, which creates the spiral?
[00:11:14] Kiran: Send us your answers on takaropodcast.com or on Instagram, and one lucky winner wins an absolutely amazing surprise gift - it could be Needohs, it could be smart toys, it could be something really exciting. Make sure you send in your answers and we'll pick one lucky winner and send your surprise gift very soon.
[00:12:01] Kiran: Last week's question was: France is famous for its political uprisings and public protests - which historic protest led to the toppling of the French monarchy? The right answer is the French Revolution. Congratulations, Amit - you are the lucky winner, and your surprise gift is going to be sent over to you very soon.
[00:12:30] Kiran: So be like him - send us your answer for this week's quiz question, and until next week, it is bye-bye.