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{{Short description|Hoax}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2023}}
[[File:Image taken from page 52 of 'The Land of Temples (India)' (11152933973).jpg|thumb|Engraving of Bombay Harbour published in 1882.]]
The so-called '''Bombay Cyclone of 1882''' or '''Great Bombay Cyclone''' is a [[hoax]] (or otherwise fictitious) historical event. Supposedly, the [[cyclone]] struck [[Bombay]] on 6 June 1882. Though it is widely reported, even in scientific literature, historical research shows that it did not in fact happen.

==Example accounts of the supposed event==
Reportedly, the earliest mention of the supposed cyclone so far discovered by researchers is in an article entitled "Hurricane second only to tornado in wind violence" by M. Hall in the American newspaper ''[[The Nashua Telegraph]]'' published on 17 September 1947, followed by a piece by one B. Chester, "Earthquakes, tidal waves cause historic disasters" from ''[[Evening Independent|The Evening Independent]]'' of 31 March 1964.<ref name=myth>P. Mukhopadhyay and M. Mahakur, '[http://www.oceansociety.in/newsletter/oceandigest_2015v2i4.pdf The Myth Regarding the "Great Bombay Cyclone" of 6 June 1882] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903090407/http://www.oceansociety.in/newsletter/oceandigest_2015v2i4.pdf |date=3 September 2021 }}', ''Ocean Digest: Quarterly Newsletter of the Ocean Society of India'', 2.4 (December 2015), p. 7.</ref><ref name=":0" />{{rp|2358}}

The cyclone is mentioned in academic literature from at least 1976.<ref>C. L. Mantell and A. M. Mantell, ''Our Fragile Water Planet: An Introduction to the Earth Sciences'' (New York: Springer, 1976), p. 94 (no source cited).</ref> An entry in the 2008 edition of the ''Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones'' by David Longshore states:
<blockquote>'''The Great Bombay Cyclone of June 6, 1882:''' One of few truly great Indian cyclones to have formed over the Arabian Sea, the Great Bombay Cyclone—engorged with 110-MPH (177-km/h) winds and an 18-foot (6-m) surge—reportedly claimed more than 100,000 lives when it came ashore at Bombay right before daybreak.<ref>David Longshore, ''Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones'', new edn (New York: Facts on File, 2008), p. 258 (no source cited).</ref></blockquote>
A 2014 academic article claims that "the deadliest [[storm surge]] of Arabian sea was Great Bombay Cyclone, took place in 1882 causing 100,000 {{sic|causalities}}. It is one of ten deadliest tropical cyclones of the known history of the world."<ref>A. S. Rana, Q. Zaman, M. Afzal, M . A. Haroon, '[https://www.pmd.gov.pk/rnd/rndweb/rnd_new/journal/vol11_issue21_files/6.pdf Characteristics of Sea Surface Temperature of the Arabian Sea Coast of Pakistan and Impact of Tropical Cyclones on SST]', ''Pakistan Journal of Meteorology'' 11.21 (July 2014), 61-70 (p. 62), citing H. K. Yusuf, S. Dasgupta, and M. H. Khan, 'August Climate Change: An Emerging Threat To Agriculture and Food Security in Bangladesh', in ''International Symposium on Climate Change and Food Security in South Asia, Dhaka, Bangladesh'' (2008), pp. 25-30. If this is substantially the same paper as the almost identically-titled slides at https://web.archive.org/web/20121002172713/http://www.wamis.org/agm/meetings/rsama08/Bari101-Yusuf-Climate-Change.pdf (slide 20), then Yusuf et al.'s source was [https://archive.today/20061210034809/http://metocph.nmci.navy.mil/jtwc.php] (link now dead), but the [https://web.archive.org/web/20080328045433/http://metocph.nmci.navy.mil:80/jtwc.php March 2008 version of the page] at archive.org does not contain the relevant data.</ref> Another account, published in 2017, says that
<blockquote>the city of Bombay was all but destroyed by a monster cyclone that slammed into the Maharashtra region on June 6th 1882. This was one of the few great storms to emerge from the Arabian Sea. The super storm covered an enormous area as it came ashore at dawn bringing with it 110 mile per hour winds and an 18 foot tidal surge that inundated much of the region around Bombay ... The resultant winds, flooding and damage to buildings killed more the 100,000 people.<ref>Paul W Simpson, ''Star of Greece'' (Adelaide: Clippership Press, 2017), p. 91.</ref></blockquote>
It appears in other academic literature besides: some further examples are referenced here.<ref>Richard Anthes, ''Tropical Cyclones: Their Evolution, Structure and Effects'' (Boston, MA: American Meteorological Society, 1982), p. 4 (table 1.2), citing R. L. Southern, '[https://www.bom.gov.au/jshess/docs/1979/southern.pdf The Global Socio-Economic Impact of Tropical Cyclones]', ''Australian Meteorological Magazine'', 27 (1979), 175–95 (no page reference cited, but the relevant page is Table 3, p. 178; Southern's citation for his table simply says 'from various sources').</ref><ref>Kerry Emanuel, ''Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 264 (no source cited).</ref><ref>Shubhendu S. Shukla, '[https://www.ijser.in/archives/v1i1/MDMxMzA5MTE=.pdf Disaster Management: "Managing the Risk of Environmental Calamity"]', ''International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Research (IJSER)'', 1.1 (September 2013), 1-18 (p. 14; no source cited).</ref> As of December 2015, research noted, it was also reported as fact in Wikipedia<ref name=myth/> (a 2019 study also made the same claim).<ref name=":0">Adam H. Sobel and others, '[https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/MWR-D-18-0419.1 Tropical Cyclone Hazard to Mumbai in the Recent Historical Climate]', ''Monthly Weather Review'' (July 2019), 2355-66; {{doi|10.1175/MWR-D-18-0419.1}}.</ref>{{rp|2357}}

==Debunking of the story==
[[File:BAXTER (1882) Bombay, view from Cumballa Hill.jpg|thumb|View of Bombay from [[Cumballa Hill]] published in 1882.]]
Research into newspapers, meteorological records, and weather reports shows no contemporary record of the event.<ref name=myth/><ref>Adam Sobel, '[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=ALL-AT-SEA-WHAT-MUMBAI-NEEDS-TO-LEARN-02122015014034 All at Sea: What Mumbai Needs to Learn from Superstorm Sandy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622233646/http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=ALL-AT-SEA-WHAT-MUMBAI-NEEDS-TO-LEARN-02122015014034 |date=2019-06-22 }}', ''The Times of India (Delhi)'' (2 December 2015).</ref><ref>[[Amitav Ghosh]], ''[[The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable]]'' (London: Penguin, 2016), chapter 10.</ref><ref name=":0" /> If a storm of anything like the reported magnitude had happened, then it would have killed about an eighth of Bombay's population, and would have been widely reported. There does appear to have been a storm with heavy rain and strong winds on 4 June 1882, but it does not answer to descriptions of the supposed cyclone of 6 June. Bombay's biggest cyclone event of the nineteenth century in fact appears to have been the [[Pre-1890 North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons#Late 19th century|cyclone of 1854]], when "'property valued at half-a-million pounds sterling' was destroyed in four hours and a thousand people were killed".<ref>Amitav Ghosh, ''[[The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable]]'' (London: Penguin, 2016), chapter 10, citing [Stephen Meredith Edwardes], ''The Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island'', 3 vols (Bombay: The Times Press, 1909), [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55898 I] 99.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:20th-century hoaxes]] 
[[Category:Hoaxes in India]]
[[Category:Hoaxes in science]]
[[Category:Fictional history]]

Bombay Cyclone of 1882 (hoax) - Revision history

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