Investigation of the character and impact of tropical cyclone Yaas: a study over coastal districts of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Tropical cyclones have become more frequent as a result of climate change and the associated temperature rise in the ocean surface, wreaking havoc on both natural and man-made elements. The most recent storm, Yaas, has had a wide-spread impact on coastal areas, with high-intensity wind, rainfall, and, most significantly, inundation in Odisha and West Bengal coastal region. Yaas formed over east central Bay of Bengal as a depression and gradually intensified to VSCS and finally made landfall near Balasore of Odisha coast, with a wind speed of 130–140 km/h. on 26th May, 2021. The present study is, therefore, aimed to characterize the cyclone Yaas and to investigate the expansion of cyclonic inundation in different sector of coastal West Bengal. Several space-borne data sets were employed in this study, including GPM data to illustrate precipitation variability, Sentinel-1 images for inundation mapping, and Sentinel-2 data to determine MNDWI for both pre- and post-cyclonic periods. The results show that during this cyclonic period, hundreds of km2 of land in West Bengal, including blocks of South 24 parganas, East Medinipur and North 24 parganas such as Sagar (37.10 km2), Namkhana (78.12 km2), Pathar Pratima (58.74 km2), Ramnagar I (15.24 km2) and II (19.62 km2), Khejuri (22.27 km2), and other blocks were inundated by cyclonic surge and about a total of 1195 mm of rainfall. Eventually, people have lost their homes, properties have damaged, and many agricultural fields have become barren by salt water accumulation.