Overall Red alert Tropical Cyclone for NIVAR-20
in India

Event summary

Tropical Cyclone NIVAR-20 can have a high humanitarian impact based on the maximum sustained wind speed, exposed population and vulnerability.

GDACS ID TC 1000747
Name NIVAR-20
Glide number: TC-2020-000233-IND
From - To 23 Nov - 26 Nov
Exposed countries India
Exposed population 6.1 million in Category 1 or higher
Maximum wind speed 130 km/h Category 1
Maximum storm surge 0.6 m (25 Nov 20:00 UTC)
Vulnerability High (India)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
Wind Storm surge Rainfall GDACS score
GDACS JTWC 102 km/h 0.6 m n.a. 1.5
Single TC: maximum expected impact (wind, storm surge, rainfall)
HWRF 137 km/h 0.8 m 917 mm 0.5
GFS 144 km/h 0.5 m 787 mm 0.5
ECMWF 97 km/h 0.4 m 493 mm 0.5
Maximum expected impact (wind, storm surge and rainfall) using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
India, Sri Lanka - Tropical cyclone NIVAR (ECHO 24 Nov 2020)Tue, 24 Nov 2020 09:57

  • Tropical cyclone NIVAR formed over the southern Bay of Bengal and moved north-west towards south-eastern India. On 24 November at 0.00 UTC its centre was located approximately 250 km northeast of Trincomalee City (northeast coast of Sri Lanka) with maximum sustained wind of 74 km/h (tropical storm).
  • NIVAR is forecast to strengthen as it will continue north-west, passing close to the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka and it could make landfall over the central-northeastern coast of Tamil Nadu State on the evening of 25 November.
  • On 24-27 November, heavy rain, strong wind and storm surge are expected across the eastern, northern and north-central provinces of Sri Lanka and the southeastern States of India (Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh).
  • Red warnings for heavy and strong rain were issued for northern Sri Lanka (particularly for Jaffna Peninsula) as well as for south-eastern India, including Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh.

India, Sri Lanka - Tropical cyclone NIVAR (ECHO 25 Nov 2020)Wed, 25 Nov 2020 10:09

  • Tropical cyclone NIVAR is strengthening as it moves north-west over the south-western Bay of Bengal towards south-eastern India. On 25 November at 0.00 UTC, its centre was located approximately 300 km east of Nagapattinam Town (Tamil Nadu State) with maximum sustained wind of 111 km/h (tropical storm).
  • On the forecast track, NIVAR will continue north-west and it will make landfall over the north-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu State, very close to Chennai City between the night of 25 and the early hours of 26 November, with maximum sustained wind up to 120-130 km/h.
  • On 25-27 November, heavy rain, strong wind and storm surge are expected across the northern and eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka, as well as south-eastern India, including Tamil Nadu, south coastal Andra Pradesh, south-eastern Karnataka and Telangana.
  • Red warnings for heavy rain and strong wind have been issued for Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh (southeastern India) and red warnings for strong wind over northern Sri Lanka.
India - Tropical Cyclone NIVAR update (ECHO 26 Nov 2020)Thu, 26 Nov 2020 10:40

  • On 25 November, tropical cyclone NIVAR made landfall over north-eastern Tamil Nadu (around 15 km north of Pondicherry). On 26 November, its centre was located inland approximately 35 km east of Tiruvannamalai, and 110 km south-west of the Chennai area.
  • Media report, as of 26 November, 3 fatalities, hundreds of damaged houses, and about 175,000 evacuated people across 1,694 relief centres in Tamil Nadu.
  • NIVAR is forecast to continue north-west over north-eastern Tamil Nadu, and southern Andhra Pradesh on 26-27 November, weakening and dissipating.
  • Over the next 24 hours, very heavy rainfall is forecast over most of Tamil Nadu, and southern Andhra Pradesh. Heavy rainfall is also forecast over most of Sri Lanka. IMD issued a red warning for heavy rainfall over coastal and southern Andhra Pradesh, as well as an orange warning over coastal and northern Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
  • The International Charter Space and Major Disasters was activated on 24 November for north-eastern Tamil Nadu (including the Chennai area), in order to support damage assessment.
India - Tropical Cyclone NIVAR update (ECHO 27 Nov 2020)Fri, 27 Nov 2020 02:00

  • After the passage of tropical cyclone NIVAR on 25-26 November over Tamil Nadu State (south-eastern India) the number of fatalities has increased to 5 around the Chennai City area, according to media.
  • Heavy rainfall and strong wind were reported across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, resulting in widespread flooding, damaged buildings and roads.
  • Over the next 24 hours, the remnants of NIVAR will cause moderate to heavy rainfall over some areas of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Andhra Pradesh. 
 
Detailed event map. European Union, 2024. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Latest media headlines

Articles: 426 | About casualties: 103 | Last hour: 0

Cyclone Nivar ravages 10K hectares of crop in TNSun, 29 Nov 2020 03:45:00 +0100.

CHENNAI: The Union government has constituted an eight-member inter-ministerial team for on the spot assessment of the situation in the wake of Cyclone Nivar in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The state government has estimated that around 9,687
...(more)
The Hindu Explains | How are cyclones forecast, and how difficult was ... Sat, 28 Nov 2020 21:37:00 +0100.

and Nisarga . The Nivar storm originated in the Bay of Bengal and whipped up windspeeds close to 125-145 kmph, blowing away roofs and felling standing crop. However, relatively fewer lives were lost compared to the havoc wreaked by Amphan i
...(more)
After Nivar, another cyclone forming over Bay of Bengal? Here is what ... Fri, 27 Nov 2020 15:22:00 +0100.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in Chennai on Friday stated that a low depression is forming over the Bay of Bengal which is likely to intensify further by Sunday. The development comes after Cyclone Nivar ravaged Tamil Nadu and
...(more)
Inde: Grâce aux évacuations, le cyclone n’a fait aucune victime selon ... Fri, 27 Nov 2020 11:06:00 +0100.

Des prévisions météo précises et l’évacuation préventive de centaines de milliers de personnes sur la côte Sud-Est de l’Inde frappée par un cyclone ont permis d’éviter toute perte de vies humaines, se sont félicitées jeudi les autorités pen
...(more)

View more news

Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (38), (2), DesInventar (4), WMO (1), INFORM (2),