Thunderstorm likely in South Bengal dists in next 24 hrs: MeT
KOLKATA: The Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore predicted moderate to heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of Bengal in the next 24 hours due to the impact of Cyclone Asani.
The severe cyclonic storm Asani has weakened into a deep depression and crossed the coast between Machilipatnam and Narasapur with a wind speed of 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph on Wednesday evening. Asani will start to recurve from the Kakinada area of Andhra Pradesh again to the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday midnight. So there will be no such major problems in Bengal.
All the North Bengal districts will receive heavy rainfall from Thursday to Sunday. Darjeeling, Coochbehar,
Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong may receive heavy to very heavy rainfall. Heavy rainfall alerts have been issued for Coochbehar and Alipurduar on Friday and Saturday. Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong and Alupurduar may also receive heavy rainfall on Sunday as well. Other South Bengal districts may witness scattered rainfall.
Kolkata and several South Bengal districts received rainfall on Wednesday morning. Various pockets of East Midnapore, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas may witness heavy rainfall on Thursday. There may be thunderstorms in some other South Bengal districts as well.
Fishermen have already been asked not to venture into the sea till Friday due to turbulent sea.
It may be mentioned here that the sea in Digha and other beach towns of East Midnapore turned rough on Wednesday evening. It will turn into a deep depression on Thursday morning.
The cyclone was moving towards Andhra coast at a speed of 12 kmph.
Sea in Digha turned turbulent with one NDRF team deployed in Digha while the other posted at Contai II. One NDRF team has been deployed at Nandigram and Contai I each.
Around 5,460 people have been evacuated and around 105 cyclone shelters have been made operational.