BHUBANESWAR: The tropical storm brewing over the Bay of Bengal is likely to skirt Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday. The well-marked low-pressure area concentrated into a depression and lay centered over south-east Bay of Bengal and adjoining Andaman Sea at 11.30 am, about 1,270 km south-east of Visakhapatnam and 1,300 km south-southeast of Puri. The system is likely to move north-westwards and intensify into a cyclonic storm over the east-central Bay of Bengal on Sunday.
“The tropical storm is likely to continue to move north-westwards till Tuesday evening and reach west-central and adjoining north-west Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coasts. Thereafter, the cyclone is expected to re-curve north-northeastwards and move towards north-west Bay of Bengal,” IMD DG, Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told.
The cyclonic storm is likely to skirt Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts. The system is expected to move along the Odisha coast but weaken gradually due to cold waters in north Bay of Bengal, Mohapatra added.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Centre has indicated a similar path of the tropical storm and has suggested it is very likely to move parallel to the Odisha coast towards West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts.
Weather experts are of the opinion that the impending cyclone may have the same intensity as that of weak tropical storm Jawad, which had formed over Bay of Bengal in December last year. Meanwhile, the IMD has said that light to moderate rainfall is likely to commence in many places of coastal districts of the State from Tuesday evening and heavy rainfall is expected at one or two places in Gajapati, Ganjam and Puri districts during the said period.
Similarly, light to moderate rainfall is likely to occur at many places in coastal districts and heavy rainfall has been predicted at one or two places in Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Cuttack districts on Wednesday. Gale wind speed reaching 80 km/hr to 90 km/hr and gusting up to 100 km/hr is likely to prevail over west-central, adjoining north-west and the east-central Bay of Bengal on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, gale wind speed reaching 70 km/hr to 80 km/hr and gusting up to 90 km/hr is expected to prevail over northwest and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal. IMD has advised the fishermen to not venture into deep sea over the central parts of Bay of Bengal on Monday and Tuesday, and over north-west Bay of Bengal on Tuesday and Wednesday.