AP coast might face tropical storm in 5 days

Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts might face the brunt of the first tropical storm post monsoon in another five days.

Private weather website Skymet said now it was confirmed that a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) would be formed by October 22. As precursor to this system, a cyclonic circulation is likely over East-Central Bay of Bengal and North Andaman Sea in the next couple of hours. This system is entering the Andaman Sea from the Myanmar/Thailand region, travelling across the Gulf of Martaban and Arakan Coast. The cyclonic circulation is likely to consolidate further and move northwest over the central parts of Bay of Bengal. Quite likely, a low pressure will emerge over that region on October 22, in the early hours.

Notwithstanding the low accuracy of weather models after a period of 4-5 days, there are enough signs available for further intensification of this system. The low-pressure will move northwest to central parts of Bay of Bengal and intensify to a depression on October 23. As it appears, the weather system may be heading for the coastline of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

In that case, only limited sea travel will be available with the depression for further intensification. The truncated stretch may only allow it to pick up the initial category of storm and therefore unlikely to become too harsh to strike the coastline.

Regardless of the intensity of a cyclone, a storm is to be read like a storm, without lowering the guards. Though, the confirmation of a storm will take a little more time, but the notice available for the preparation is that much longer. If it happens, this will be the maiden storm of this post-monsoon season in the Bay of Bengal. Earlier, on two recent occasions, the weather systems could intensify, only to a depression stage, one each, on either side of the coastline. These storms are known to play truant and the entire coastline from Andhra Pradesh-Odisha-West Bengal- Bangladesh and Myanmar bear the risk of cyclone strike.

A report from IMD, Amaravathi said on Saturday that a cyclonic circulation lay over Central Andaman Sea and extended up to 5.8 km above mean sea level. Under its influence, a low pressure area is likely to form over the East central Bay of Bengal and adjoining north Andaman Sea on October 21. Thereafter, it is likely to move north-westwards and intensify further into a depression around October 23.