Visakhapatnam: A low pressure area over South Andaman Sea and adjoining Southeast Bay of Bengal along with associated cyclonic circulation extending upto mid-tropospheric levels persists.
This is very likely to move northwestwards, intensify into a depression by Saturday evening and further into a cyclonic storm by Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, IMD has warned fishermen against venturing into the sea for the next five days. It is yet to make an official forecast about the landfall area in case of the system’s intensification into a cyclonic storm. It’s named as Cyclone Asani.
Director of IMD-Amaravati, Stella S, said the system is very likely to move northwestwards and reach the west central Bay of Bengal off north Andhra-Odisha coasts by May 10.
The trough/wind discontinuity now runs from above cyclonic circulation over southeast Madhya Pradesh to south Tamil Nadu across Vidarbha, Telangana and Rayalaseema at 0.9km above mean sea level.
Under its impact, thunderstorms accompanied by lightning likely at one or two paces over north coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam and Rayalaseema region are likely for two days.
“It is too early to say about the direction of the cyclonic storm because there is no consensus among the models. One model says it would cross north Andhra and another predicts it would re-curve and head for West Bengal and Bangladesh. We will get a clear picture about its direction on Sunday,’’ Stella added.
Expecting that the cyclonic storm would move towards Odisha and north coastal AP, the Odisha government has alerted the revenue officials to set up emergency control rooms. Odisha has faced three cyclones in the past three summer seasons. Cyclone Fani, which hit the Odisha coast in 2019, was the most devastating one among the three.
