Asani likely to touch Andhra coast, set to weaken today: IMD
NEW DELHI: Cyclone Asani has changed course and will likely move along the east coast between Yanam, Kakinada and Visakhapatnam on Wednesday morning before weakening, according to the Indian Meteorological Department, which issued a red alert for coastal areas in Andhra Pradesh.
The cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal is likely to cause heavy rainfall and extremely strong winds along the Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts on Wednesday. There will be heavy rainfall at isolate places in coastal West Bengal as well. The storm is expected to weaken into a depression by Thursday morning, the weather office predicted.
“We are expecting it to touch the coast on Wednesday morning,” said Ananda Kumar Das, in-charge of the weather bureau’s cyclone monitoring division. “The impact may not be very severe, but people still need to be prepared.”
“The system is moving slowly and its weakening was expected. In the past many hours, its size has become smaller and has helped Asani to retain its energy and intensity,” Das added.
Wind speeds are expected to fall to 85-95kmph by Tuesday night and 55-65kmph on Wednesday morning, IMD said.
A red warning has been issued for coastal Andhra Pradesh to allow authorities to take action to prevent disasters. A storm surge of 0.5 m above the astronomical tide is likely to inundate low lying areas of Krishna, East and West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts of the state. “...Cyclones generally move northwestward in the Bay of Bengal due to the rotational effect of the Earth. But this track of cyclones are generally regulated by upper level winds such as the subtropical jet, which display high variability. This is a reason why sometimes the track of the cyclone changes,” said Roxy Mathew Koll, climate scientist at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.