Hudhud, the strongest tropical cyclone in the northern Indian Ocean beating Nanauk, is expected to weaken as it moves over land and is cut off from the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal. But the cyclone is expected to bring heavy rains in the interior portions of the country while transforming into a tropical rainstorm.
According to international weather portal, accuweather (www.accuweather.com), Hudhud is a category 3B cyclone, the first organised tropical system in Bay of Bengal since May, accompanied by “very destructive” winds with typical gusts over the land. These winds, corresponding to the highest category on Beaufort scale, an empirical measure relating to wind speed, could cause some roof, structural damages besides giving scope for power failures.
Flooding and damaging winds are expected from Kakinada northward to Berhampur in south Odisha area. Any damaging winds will likely be limited to areas within 160 KM (100 miles) from Visakhapatnam where Hudhud made landfall on Sunday afternoon. Rainfall could be as high as 25 cm in some locations in north Andhra and there was risk of mudslides in the Eastern Ghats just inland from the coast.
The core of the heaviest rain could be towards the middle of this week and this was likely to sweep to northeast, an area that witnessed catastrophic flooding a month ago, according to the latest report in the portal.
