Cyclone Chapala spares Oman, moves to Yemen
MUSCAT: There will be no further direct impact of cyclone Chapala on the Dhofar coast, as the cyclone has moved towards Yemen, Oman’s Meteorology (Met) Department, said.
“Latest analysis shows that there are no possibilities of any direct impact of the cyclone on the Dhofar coast. However, the sea would be rough, with wave heights reaching three to five metres in the Dhofar and Al Wusta region,” the Met Department said in a statement.
“Rain is expected in the Dhofar and Al Wusta regions,” it added.
Meanwhile, residents of Sala- lah, especially in the Hasek area, said they had experienced heavy rainfall and the wadis (valleys) in the area were overflowing.
“Wadis are overflowing and the skies are still cloudy,” Bader Ali Al Baddaei, an administrator at www.rthmc.net, a local web-based forum that discusses weather in Oman, said.
An official from the Salalah port stated that port authorities had resumed their operations by Monday afternoon. The operations were halted as the cyclone was predicted to make direct landfall in Salalah.
Meanwhile, by Monday afternoon, cyclone Chapala continued to barrel towards the coast of Yemen after devastating the Yemeni island of Socotra.
Interaction with dry air from the Arabian Peninsula has caused the cyclone to weaken slightly, National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. Even so, parts of Yemen are still expected to receive as much as half a metre of rain stemming from the event, which is equivalent of about five years of normal rain, according to UK’s Met Office.