Titli declared ‘rarest cyclone’, as per latest report by RIMES

The Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) has termed ‘Titli’, the severe cyclonic storm that devastated Odisha in October 2018, as ‘rarest cyclone’. In its latest report, RIMES stated that more than 200 years of cyclone track history in the Odisha coast reveals that the Titli cyclone is the rarest of rare due to the recurvature after its landfall. Titli retained its destructive potential after landfall and made a recurvature away from coastal areas for more than two days. According to RIMES, the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) faced challenges in anticipating and managing Titli’s impact due to lack of impact-based actionable early warning information and prior experience not only in India but also elsewhere. The RIMES has recommended that a detailed risk assessment has to be carried out for Odisha to understand the risks in the light of the Titli devastation. Earlier, India Meteorological Department had called the formation of Titli as a ‘rarest of rare’ occurrence. Thailand-based RIMES is a 45-nation international organisation on disaster warning.