VISAKHAPATNAM: Heavy rainfall and flood-related incidents claimed 46 lives while cyclones claimed four lives in Andhra Pradesh in 2021, according to Annual Climate Statement 2021 released by India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday.
The IMD report said that heavy rainfall and flood-related incidents claimed over 750 lives from different parts of the country in 2021.
Of these, 215 lives were lost in Maharashtra, 143 in Uttarakhand, 55 in Himachal Pradesh, 53 in Kerala and 46 in Andhra Pradesh. Thunderstorms and lightning killed at least 780 people in different parts of the country in 2021.
Rayalaseema and Nellore districts witnessed a massive scale of floods in November 2021. Though there is no data for decades, the Central Water Commission (CWC) says that the recent floods in AP could be the worst in the past two decades.
Heavy rains in November in 2021 due to the depression in the Bay of Bengal caused massive flooding in parts of Andhra Pradesh, especially in Chittoor and Kadapa districts. Tirumala and Tirupati were hit by floods on an unprecedent scale.
The IMD data also show that in 2021, five cyclones formed over the north Indian Ocean. These were: extremely severe cyclonic storm Tauktae, very severe cyclonic storm Yaas, severe cyclonic storm Shaheen (remnant of Gulab), cyclonic storm Gulab and cyclonic storm Jawad.
Of these, three cyclones (Yaas, Gulab and Jawad) formed over the Bay of Bengal and the remaining two cyclones (Tauktae and Shaheen) formed over the Arabian Sea.
Among these five cyclones, Gulab (September 24 to September 28), formed during the southwest monsoon season and crossed north Andhra Pradesh–south Odisha coasts on September 26, claiming 19 lives from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra.
The IMD says that 2021 was the fifth warmest for India in the last 121 years — after 2016, 2009, 2017 and 2010. The mean air temperature in 2021 was 0.44 degrees celsius above the normal.
