Days after Arnab, Andhra Pradesh braces for another cyclone

A view of unusual rough sea, strong winds and rainfall conditions as Cyclone Arnab moves closer to the east coast at Gopalpur, in Ganjam on Tuesday. (ANI Video Grab)

Less than a week, after ‘severe cyclone’ Arnab wreaked havoc along its coast, Andhra Pradesh will have to brace for another cyclone.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that a cyclone would develop in the southeast Bay of Bengal and cross the Andhra Pradesh coast at a location between Nellore – Narsapur during early hours on November 3.

On Saturday, a well-marked low pressure area had developed along the southeast Bay of Bengal, close to the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Andaman Sea.

Later in the day, it intensified into a depression and moved west-northwestwards. It will further move west-northwestwards, the system is expected to strengthen into a deep depression during the wee hours of Sunday.

“The system will intensify further into a cyclonic storm over southeast and west-central Bay of Bengal on Sunday. It will reach near the Andhra Pradesh coast around evening of November 2,” the IMD said late on Saturday night.

“It will cross south Andhra Pradesh coast as a ‘severe’ cyclonic storm with wind speed of 100 to 110 km per hour gusting to 120 km per hour between Nellore and Narsapur,” the national weather agency added.

As per the latest satellite imagery and IMD’s updates on Saturday, the system was located about 960 km east-southeast of Chennai, 980 km southeast of Visakhapatnam and 1,030 km southeast of Machilipatnam and 1,080 km east-southeast of Ongole.

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Once the cyclone develops, it will be identified as Murasu, or ‘drum’ in Tamil.

In view of the approaching cyclone, Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema are bracing for very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall (115mm – 200mm or more in 24-hours) on November 2 and 3.