Bhubaneswar: A ‘well-marked’ low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal has intensified into a depression and is likely to develop into a cyclonic storm that may hit the Andhra Pradesh coast on November 3, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said on Saturday.
On October 28, cyclonic storm Arnab battered Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, bringing wind speeds of up to 150 kmph at landfall.
“The wind speed of the possible cyclonic storm is likely to be between 80 kmph and 90 kmph, with occasional gusts up to 100 kmph. It may make landfall along the Andhra Pradesh coast on Tuesday morning,” IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
In a bulletin issued at 3 pm, the IMD said, “The well-marked low-pressure area over the southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining areas of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Andaman Sea had moved west-northwestwards and concentrated into a depression at 11.30 am on October 31 over the same region.”
The weather system was located 330 km west-southwest of Sri Vijayapuram in the Andaman Islands and 300 km west-northwest of Car Nicobar.
“It is very likely to move west-northwestwards and intensify into a deep depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal during the next 12 hours.”
“Continuing to move west-northwestwards, it is very likely to intensify further into a cyclonic storm over the southeast and adjoining areas of the southwest and west-central Bay of Bengal during the subsequent 12 hours and reach the west-central Bay of Bengal near the Andhra Pradesh coast around the evening of November 2,” the bulletin said.
A depression is a weather system that is more intense than a low-pressure area but less intense than a cyclonic storm.
Manorama Mohanty, director of the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, said the IMD was monitoring the system's progress and would issue further updates as it evolved.