Ferocious winds and torrential rain lashed India's southeastern coast as Cyclone Arnab made landfall on Wednesday, forcing nearly 100,000 people to evacuate their homes in two states, authorities said.Arnab hit Andhra Pradesh as a "very severe cyclonic storm", with winds of 125-135 kilometres per hour and gusts reaching 150 kph, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said."Very severe cyclonic storm Arnab is continuing to interact with the land surface," the IMD said in a statement, along the coasts between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam.Authorities ordered thousands to move inland or take shelter in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha ahead of the storm, while neighbouring Sri Lanka and Nepal also issued weather warnings."Protecting every life is our foremost priority," Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu said as the storm approached the coast.As many as 50,000 people have been told to move to safe areas in Andhra Pradesh, and 48,000 in Odisha.India's weather bureau warned of "total destruction" of thatched houses, localised flooding, the uprooting of power and communications poles, and "widespread damage" to standing crops.
The state’s disaster management authority said more than 12 million people live along the cyclone’s expected path.Authorities set up over 2,000 cyclone shelters across 20 districts, while emergency alerts were being sent to the mobile phones of millions of residents, said Prakhar Jain, head of the Andra Pradesh state disaster management authority.More than 30,000 fishing boats were secured along the coast, while nearly 1,100 medical teams were deployed across affected areas to provide emergency assistance, he added.
Euronews reports Cyclone Arnab's landfall in Andhra Pradesh, the evacuation of nearly 100,000 people and the official warnings of damage, all clearly attributed to the IMD and state officials. It never tells its reader that warming is making intense tropical cyclones like this one more frequent or more severe, so the storm reads as a weather event with no wider cause.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“Ferocious winds and torrential rain lashed India's southeastern coast as Cyclone Arnab made landfall on Wednesday”
Why this matters
Euronews describes a "very severe cyclonic storm" with "ferocious winds and torrential rain", warnings of "total destruction" and nearly 100,000 people evacuated, and never once mentions climate change or warming anywhere in the report.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away believing Cyclone Arnab is simply a natural hazard of the season, with nothing about it shaped by a warming planet.
The context
Human-caused warming has made intense tropical cyclones and heavy rainfall more frequent or more severe. A single line saying so would have given the reader the frame. The article contains no word on climate or warming at all.
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
Ferocious winds and torrential rain lashed India's southeastern coast as Cyclone Arnab made landfall on Wednesday, forcing nearly 100,000 people from their homes. Climate change is making intense tropical cyclones and the heavy rain they bring more severe.