Context: Due to the onslaught of cyclone Jawad in Odisha, the state government had ordered to keep the schools closed in 19 districts. Moreover Heavy rains lashed coastal Odisha as cyclonic storm Jawad weakened into depression.
About Cyclone Jawad

• Cyclone Jawad is a cyclonic storm formed out of a deep depression in Bay of Bengal.
• It has wreaked damage to states of Odisha and West Bengal.
• It is pronounced as ‘Jowad’, meaning generous or merciful in Arabic.
• It was named by Saudi Arabia.

What is a cyclone?

• A Cyclone is a system of winds rotating inwards at a high speed with the area of low pressure in the middle.

How are cyclones formed?

• Tropical cyclones form only over warm ocean waters near the equator.
• Warm moist air over the ocean rises upward from near the surface, causing an area of lower air pressure below.
• Air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes into the low-pressure area.  

Then this new “cool” air becomes warm and moist and rises, too.

• As the warm moist air rises and cools, it forms clouds.
• The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating from the ocean surface.
• As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the centre. It is very calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure.  Higher pressure air from above flows down into the eye.

Weakening of Tropical cyclones

• Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land, because they are no longer being fed by the energy from the warm ocean waters.
• However, they often move far inland, causing mild to heavy rainfall and other damages caused by winds.