One of the last tragic extreme weather events of 2011 was Cyclone Thane hitting the Tamil Nadu coast of India. It caused 46 deaths and damaged buildings, roads and crops. It was the strongest tropical cyclone of 2011 within the North Indian Ocean.
Image from NOAA - Cyclone Thane in the Bay of Bengal
on 28 December 2011, taken by Meteosat
From the Bay of Bengal it made landfall as a very severe cyclone on Friday 30 December very close to Puducherry. The storm struck with torrential rains and gale force winds from 125 to 140 kilometres per hour which uprooted hundreds of trees and knocked down electric poles and mobile phone towers producing power outages and communications blackouts in several areas.
A recent study linked increasing air pollution over the Indian sub-continent to an increase in the intensity of Tropical cyclones in the region.
