Storm brewing in Bay; coastal Andhra likely to be hit: IMD

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 north-westerly 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.