Guwahati: Meteorologists have confirmed that the devastating storm that claimed 34 lives in eight villages of Mankachar in Assam's Dhubri district on April 22 was caused by a tornado and followed by severe thunder squall.

According to the findings of the Meteorological Department, the devastating storm had three main characteristics of a tornado - humidity, instability in the atmospheric pressure and the lifting mechanism of the air.

Senior meteorologist H Pathak of Guwahati Meteorological Centre, who has been deputed by the Centre to study the causes of the killer storm, said on April 28 that all evidence at present pointed to a tornado and not a cyclone as reported in some sections of the media earlier.

He said that cyclones originate in the seas and in the case of the North East, it begins from the Bay of Bengal and gradually weakens on entering the mainland and is accompanied by heavy downpour but in this particular case there was nothing of this sort.

The meteorologist pointed out that the claim for tornado was further strengthened as some of the bodies bore severe burn marks which could have been caused by heat and electricity that builds up in a tornado.

Pathak said that the tornado gathers momentum in a few minutes and as such it is difficult to make predictions about it unlike the cyclone for which warning can be issued.

PTI