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Cyclones are large areas of low atmospheric pressure, characterized by inward-spiraling winds, which occur in the Indian Ocean (British Broadcast Corporation Weather,2007); moreover, these pressure systems are known as typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. Every year these storms create chaos and destruction all over the world, but some areas are more prevalent that others. For example, the country of Bangladesh is often hit by strong tropical storms and cyclones. One of these cases is Cyclone Bhola, which struck the Bangladesh in 1970, and caused massive casualties in the country. Therefore, Cyclone Bhola was one of the worst cyclones in the history of the country and the world because of the amount of death and destruction it caused, the magnitudes of record that it broke, and because the lessons it taught to the people of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is a country that is very unique because it sits atop the world’s largest river deltas formed by the cross-sections of Padma (Ganges), Jamuna (Brahmaputra) and Meghna (see Figure 2). The country’s geographical attributes are better put by the words of Charles E. Cobb of National Geographic who said in his report, “Bangladesh is a country that floats” (pg.120). Because of its location, Bangladesh is well known for its fertile land, and seasons. In fact, Bangladesh is the only country in the world that has six distinct seasons, and they are summer, rainy, autumn, cool, winter, and spring (Discover Bangladesh). Bangladesh has another distinct property, which is its prevalence to cyclones.
Cyclones are generally formed near the equator when the sun heats the air, and causes it to rise. When the warm air rises, cool air tries to come in fill up the gap that is left, but because the Earth is rotating on its axis, the cool air cannot fill up the gap, and instead the cool air collides with the warm air, and causes thunderstorms. Eventually, the system begins to move in a...