Appearently a cyclone hit India this morning...what cyclone?

[Cyclenall]

On the news, multiple sources are stating that a deadly cyclone hit west Bengal this morning that killed over 100 and damaged over 60 000 homes. I haven't seen anything on a cyclone that existed in the north Indian recently and in fact there hasn't been any so far in 2010. It was on TV and all kinds of Internet news websites like this:

Link: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/as ... 52499.html

When I searched for older ones, this and BBC news sources states it was a "nor'wester" which is a type of weather system that forms during hots months of the year. This would explain a lot but why are so many misreporting it as a cyclone?

Link: http://www.jackbristol.com/newscentre/i ... l-15601571

[wxman57]

It wasn't a tropical cyclone, just some heavy thunderstorms. There may have been a tornado involved, but the winds would have been mostly straight-line.

[Aslkahuna]

Sounds like a tornado was definitely involved (not hard to for one to damage 60000 homes in Bengal State in India given the population density and the fact that most housing there consists of shanties). This is tornado season in India and Bangladesh and they can and do get F5's. Tornadoes there are often called cyclones like they used to be here.

Steve

[Ptarmigan]

Some of the deadliest tornadoes happened in Bangladesh. Once again due to shanty towns and high population density.

[HurricaneBill]

The deadliest tornado in the world occurred on April 26, 1989 in Bangladesh. It is estimated that 1,300 were killed and the tornado was estimated to be a mile-wide wedge.

Daulatpur-Salturia Tornado

[CrazyC83]

It was a Nor'wester - their name for a derecho.