Cyclone Helen vs Phailin

Heavy rainfall has been lashing the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh since the Cyclone Helen rapidly headed towards landfall. It smashed the coastal areas with wind speeds of 70-75 kmph gusting at about 100 kmph in Machilipatnam.

Nevertheless, the intensity of Helen in terms of winds and rainfall is no way close to the wrath of Phailin, which lashed Gopalpur in Ganjam district of Odisha, with strong winds blowing at about 200- 220 kmph at landfall. In its wake, Phailin brought torrential rains in Odisha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh as well.

Machilipatnam has received around 13 mm of rain since Friday morning. The system now shows signs of weakening, yet it will bring strong winds and heavy rain to coastal areas of Krishna, Godavari, Guntur, and extend further to Telangana and the adjoining areas.In the span of 5 hours since 8.30 a.m., Visakhapatnam and Kakinada has received 25 mm and 33 mm of rain respectively.

However, the situation cannot be compared to the trail of destruction left by Phailin after landfall on the 12^th of October. Heavy to very heavy rain continued for the next 4-6 hours over coastal areas. Till the arrival of the cyclone on the 12^th, Gopalpur received 69 mm of rain, Bhubaneswar received 44 mm, Balasore 59 mm and Khordha 50 mm of rain in a span of 6 hours.Kalingapatnam in north Andhra Pradesh coast also received 120 mm of rain and Puri witnessed heavy rain with strong winds at 170 kmph. The next day, Bhunbaneswar received highest amount of rain at 169 mm. The other places that received rain in excess of 100 mm are Gopalpur, Beripada, Puri, Keonjhar, Cuttack and Balasore. As you can see in Fig. 1, heavy to very heavy rainfall continued over south coastal and central parts of Odisha for 24 hours after Phailin struck the coast. Moderate to heavy rain was also witnessed over rest parts of Odisha, Jharkhand, east Chhattisgarh and south Bihar.

Rainfall in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh a day before Phailin and Helen, respectively: