Cyclone Komen

Cyclonic Storm Komen

Cyclonic storm (IMD scale)
Tropical storm (Saffir–Simpson scale)
Cyclonic Storm Komen near the Bangladesh coast
Formed	July 26, 2015
Dissipated	August 2, 2015
Highest winds	3-minute sustained: 75 km/h (45 mph) 1-minute sustained: 85 km/h (50 mph)
Lowest pressure	986 hPa (mbar); 29.12 inHg
Fatalities	187–280 (including unrelated flooding)
Damage	Unknown
Areas affected	Myanmar, Bangladesh, India
Part of the 2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season

Cyclonic Storm Komen was an unusual tropical cyclone that originated near the southern coast of Bangladesh and later struck the same country while drifting over the northern Bay of Bengal. The second named storm of the 2015 season, Komen brought several days of heavy rainfall to Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India. It formed as a depression on July 26 over the Ganges delta and moved in a circular motion around the northern Bay of Bengal. Komen intensified into a 75 km/h (45 mph) cyclonic storm and moved ashore southeastern Bangladesh on July 30. The system turned westward over land and was last noted over eastern India on August 2.

Across its path, Komen dropped torrential rainfall, primarily in northwestern Myanmar where the precipitation totaled at 840 mm (33 in) in Paletwa. The rains compounded upon ongoing flooding and contributed to the worst flooding in the country in a century. About 1.7 million people were forced to evacuate as flood waters inundated houses to their rooftops. About 510,000 houses in the country were damaged or destroyed, and many residents lost their source of income as 667,221 acres (270,000 ha) of crop fields were damaged. The floods killed 132 people, of which at least 39 were directly related to Komen. The government requested assistance from the international community to cope with the disaster, considered the worst in the country since Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Elsewhere, the storm's flooding damaged 88,900 houses in Bangladesh and covered crop fields for a week; Komen killed 45 people in the country, some of whom due to illnesses spread by the storm. Later, floodwaters affected southeastern India, killing 103 people and damaging or destroying 476,046 houses.

The monsoon spawned a low pressure area on July 25 over the extreme northern Bay of Bengal and along the southern coast of Bangladesh. With low wind shear and abundant convection south of a developing circulation, the system quickly organized. At 03:00 UTC on July 26, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) classified the system as a depression, while the circulation was nearly stationary near the southern coast of Bangladesh. Land interaction and an unfavorable phase of the Madden Julian Oscillation prevented further strengthening, despite warm water temperatures of 31 °C (88 °F). Early on July 27, the American-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) began monitoring the depression after the convection organized further, amplified by good outflow. Still embedded within the monsoon, the depression remained nearly nearly stationary for two days over southern Bangladesh. The JTWC issued a tropical cyclone formation alert late on July 28, due to the increasingly defined circulation.