Jawad keeps Puri guessing over another stormy encounter

Jawad’s intensity may be marginally higher than Gulab which hit Andhra with wind speed of 95 km per hour earlier in September
Ahead of the cyclone, fishing boats anchored at Puri beach on Friday| Express
Ahead of the cyclone, fishing boats anchored at Puri beach on Friday| Express

BHUBANESWAR: MORE than two years after extremely severe cyclone Fani battered the district and left the entire coastal region of Odisha in tatters, Puri once again braces for another tropical storm, Jawad.  

Amid cyclone scare and prices of essential commodities shooting up in the State, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday said Jawad’s intensity is expected to be marginally higher than tropical storm Gulab which hit north coastal Andhra Pradesh with a maximum wind speed of 95 km per hour earlier in September.

The storm is likely to move north-north-westwards and reach west-central Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts by Saturday as a severe cyclonic storm. “Jawad is likely to re-curve north-northeastwards and move along Odisha coast reaching near Puri around Sunday noon as a cyclonic storm. It may continue to move north-northeastwards along coastal Odisha towards West Bengal coast,” IMD DG, Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told mediapersons.

Jawad lay centered about 480 km south-southwest of Puri at 5.30 pm pm on Friday. It moved at a speed of around 20 km per hours in the last hours. The weather officials said, Jawad has been developing rapidly ever since it emerged into the Andaman Sea and headed north-north-westards.

By Saturday, it will intensify into a severe cyclonic storm packing peak wind speed of about 100 km per hour over the sea. By Sunday, as it closes in to the Odisha coast, it would degraded into a cyclonic storm again with a peak wind speed of 95 km per hour.

While Joint Typhoon Warning Centre suggested it may cross the State coast to the north of Chilika in Puri, the IMD suggested its interaction with land may happen further north, even alongside the coastline. The weather station cautioned of damage to thatched houses, disruption in power and communication lines, landslides in hilly areas and flooding in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Cuttack districts.

The IMD also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in parts of south, coastal and interior Odisha on Saturday and Sunday. Private weather forecast Skymet said inclement weather conditions are expected over coastline of north Andhra  Pradesh to south Odisha and the entire belt will be battered by gale winds and blustering rains.  

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