Chennai: Cyclone Gaja' to hit Tn next week

Chennai: A severe cyclone is all set to hit the Tamil Nadu coast between Karaikal and Cuddalore anytime between the midnight of Wednesday next (Nov 14) and early hours of Friday (Nov 16), weather forecasters have said.

While the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) at Chennai has forecast that “northern parts of Tamil Nadu” may experience the cyclone beginning Wednesday evening, the UK-based ‘metoffice.com’ has fixed the time of cyclone between the midnight of Wednesday and early next morning in the Karaikal-Cuddalore coast and the US forecaster NOAA says the cyclone would hit the TN coast around the same area early hours of Friday. 

Addressing the media at his office on Saturday, N Puviarasan, director of the Agromet Advisory Service Unit at the RMC, said the low pressure area over the Andaman Sea is likely to intensify into a cyclone with wind speed up to 85 km per hour. “The low pressure area over the Andaman Sea has intensified into a depression. It is likely to intensify as a cyclone, move west-north west towards northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh on the night of the November 14,”  he said.

He said northern coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and southern coastal Andhra Pradesh will experience moderate rains, with some places experiencing very heavy rains from Wednesday evening. 

Fishermen have been warned not to venture into the sea in certain areas between November 10 and 13. The Indian Meteorological Department has put out a ‘special weather warning’ to the fishermen listing out the areas to avoid and has also asked the fishermen in deep sea to return to land by Wednesday.

Also, some places down south are likely to get low to moderate rainfall on account of the cyclonic circulation over the Comorin area, Sri Lanka and equatorial Indian Ocean losing its intensity and transforming into a low pressure area.

It's the turn of Sri Lanka to name this cyclone and it gave the name as ‘Gaja’.

“My prediction of this cyclone was published as early as August last year, saying a severe cyclone would hit TN coast near Nagapattinam during November 13-18. I had also said this cyclone would be a forewarning of bad flooding in south Tamil Nadu later this year. I hope the authorities will take preventive measures to help the people, particularly the fishermen and farmers”, said noted Vedic meteorologist Ramachandran.