New Delhi: A cyclonic storm is brewing in
the Bay of Bengal and Coastal Andhra Pradesh could bear its
brunt by Wednesday, the weather office said on Monday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has detected
a depression formed over southwest Bay of Bengal this
afternoon which lay about 930 km east-southeast of Chennai and
1,000 km southeast of Visakhapatnam.
"The current environmental condition and numerical
weather prediction (NWP) models suggest that the system is
likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm and move initially
in a northwesterly direction towards Andhra Pradesh coast," an
IMD bulletin said.
The weather office said the system was under constant
watch and state governments concerned were being informed so
that they could plan their response accordingly.
Under the influence of this system, coastal areas of
Andhra Pradesh, are likely to experience fairly widespread
rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls from
Wednesday.
"Squally wind with speed reaching 45-55 kmph likely to
commence along and off Andhra Pradesh coast from May 19," the
bulletin said.
"Sea condition will be rough to very rough along and
off Andhra Pradesh coast from Wednesday and fishermen are
advised not venture into the sea during that period," it said.
Monsoon watchers were closely monitoring the impact of
the depression on the seasonal rainfall, which began with
showers in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Last year, cyclone Aila had hit parts of Orissa and
West Bengal soon after the onset of monsoon and sucked
moisture from the atmosphere thereby delaying the progress on
the rainfall further.
PTI
