BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha administration was on its toes as the deep depression over Bay of Bengal turned into cyclonic storm, christened Titli, on Tuesday. The system is predicted to turn into a severe cyclonic storm by Wednesday noon and hit the coast between south Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh on October 11.
Keeping the October date, Titli is expected to pack in wind in the range of 65 kmph along and off Odisha and north AP coast which may increase gradually to 100 kmph to 110 kmph, gusting up to 125 kmph from October 10 evening onwards, the India Meteorological Department said.
Anticipating damage to structures along the shoreline, the State Government has already advised people in coastal Ganjam and low-lying areas of Gajapati to move out to safe places. A call on emergency evacuation will be taken on Wednesday. At least 32 units of National Disaster Response Force and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force have been kept in readiness to meet the eventualities, Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said.
Moving slowly, the storm moved northwestwards with a speed of 10 kmph. It was centred at about 510 km southeast of Gopalpur coast and 460 km east-southeast of Kalingapatnam. By Tuesday evening, clouds were organised and a centre was being formed.
In next 18-24 hours, it is very likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm and move northwestwards make the landfall on October 11 morning. “After landfall, the system is very likely to re-curve northwestwards and move towards Gangetic West Bengal along the coastline of Odisha and weaken gradually,” Director of Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre HR Biswas said.
An expert in tropical meteorology, Prof UC Mohanty, Visiting Professor of School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar said the existing models show that the system may turn into a severe cyclonic storm but for a “very short period”.
As per meteorological parameters, wind speed associated with a cyclonic storm is in the bracket of 62 kmph to 88 kmph whereas for severe cyclonic storm, it is 89 kmph to 117 kmph.
The Advanced Research Weather (ARW) forecasting and Hurricane Weather Research Forecasting (HWRF) models, which are run experimentally at the IIT-Bhubaneswar showed that Titli will make landfall between north Andhra and south Odisha coast near Kalingapatnam. While ARF model showed intensity of severe cyclonic storm with maximum wind speed of 53 knots, HWRF model showed intensification upto cyclonic storm with maximum wind speed of 40 knots.
The national forecaster said, storm surge during landfall may inundate low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts in Odisha as well as parts of Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh, adding, damage was expected in Gajapadi, Ganjam, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri in Odisha and Vishakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh.
Extremely heavy rainfall alert was issued for Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara Kandhamal, Boudh, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak and Balasore over next 48 hours. Damage to kutcha houses, paddy crops, power and communication lines was expected.
Wind speed
Cyclonic storm - 62 kmph to 88 kmph
Severe cyclonic storm - 89 kmph to 117 kmph
Very severe cyclonic storm - 118 kmph to 166 kmph
Extremely severe cyclonic storm - 167 kmph to 220 kmph
Super cyclone - 220 km and above