Decaying nature of super cyclone of Orissa after landfall

Abstract

An attempt has been made in this paper to study the nature of decay of maximum wind speed of Orissa Super Cyclone (October 1999) after landfall. From the scanty observations that became available in respect of this cyclone, it is found that the maximum wind speed decreased exponentially after landfall. The decay curve indicates that the maximum wind speed got reduced to a small but non zero value.  An empirical equation relating wind speed with time after landfall has been developed. The value of decay constant (per hour) is found to be 0.0991. The technique is also tested to predict the wind speed after landfall for the very severe cyclonic storm of October 1999 which made landfall near Gopalpur in Orissa in the mid night of 17 October 1999.  The wind speed estimated applying this technique is found to be consistent with the observations.