With help from now considerably weakened cyclone Laila, south-west monsoon moved a little further in the Bay of Bengal on Friday amid indications that it could hit Tamil Nadu first instead of Kerala.
“Southwest monsoon has further advanced today into some more parts of Comorin Area, some more parts of Bay of Bengal,” a weather office statement said.
The northern limit of monsoon, which indicates the movement of the annual rains, on Friday lay nearer to Tamil Nadu as the system moved faster in the Bay of Bengal than in the Arabian Sea.
Meanwhile, Cyclone ‘Laila’ weakened substantially into a depression packing winds at a speed of 55 kmph as against the near 100 kmph levels on Thursday.
Weather prediction models suggest that the system was likely to weaken further and move in a north-northeasterly direction.
However, according to numerical models, there was possibility of emergence of the system into north of Bay of Bengal as a low pressure area.
Scientists tracking the cyclone said there was little danger of the depression turning into a cyclone as powerful as ’Laila’ as there was not much of an area in the sea for it to “play around.”
The observed track of the cyclone indicates that it would re-emerge into the Bay from northern Orissa before making landfall again in Bangladesh.
Under the influence of this system, widespread rainfall with scattered heavy to very heavy falls is likely over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and adjoining Telangana during next 12 hours and decrease in intensity thereafter.
