Bengal Spared Direct Cyclone Hit; Rain Alerts for South Districts
Kolkata, October 25: West Bengal will not face a direct hit from Cyclone 'Arnab', according to the Kolkata Regional Meteorological Centre, which spoke on Sunday. Still, residents should brace for scattered showers, thunderstorms and gusty winds between October 27 and 30.
The current weather setup is a low-pressure zone located over the east-central and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal. It is moving southeast at 8 kilometres per hour. Late Saturday night, at 11:30 pm, the system was roughly 470 km north-northwest of Sri Vijaya Puram in the Andaman Islands, 860 km east-southeast of Visakhapatnam, 950 km east-southeast of Kakinada, 1,060 km east of Machilipatnam and 1,130 km east of Bapatla.
Forecasters expect the system to move gradually southward on Sunday before bending west-northwest across the east-central Bay of Bengal. By Monday morning, it could consolidate into a cyclone, which would then be named 'Arnab'.
Over the sea, the storm is anticipated to intensify further and may become a severe cyclone by Tuesday morning. It might later advance northwest and grow into a very severe cyclone. Landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast is expected on Wednesday morning.
By Wednesday afternoon, the cyclone is forecast to strike the Andhra coast between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam in an extremely severe form. At that stage, sustained winds could be 115 to 125 kmph, with gusts reaching 140 kmph.
The low-pressure system and cyclone together will generate strong winds across the east-central and southeast Bay of Bengal. Sea wind speeds have been rising since Sunday.
Alerts have been issued for coastal areas of West Bengal beginning Tuesday. Fishermen have been instructed not to go to sea after Tuesday, and those already offshore have been asked to come back by that day. Coastal wind speeds from Tuesday are expected to range between 35 and 55 kmph, and large waves are likely to build up at sea.
Heavy rain is likely in several South Bengal districts on Wednesday and Thursday. These include South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore, West Midnapore and Jhargram. On Thursday, Purulia and Bankura could also see heavy downpours.
Isolated rain, thunder and lightning are expected in Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly on Wednesday and Thursday. North 24 Parganas, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia are likely to see similar conditions from Wednesday to Saturday.
In North Bengal, heavy rain is forecast from Thursday in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar. Scattered rain with thunder and lightning is likely in the other northern districts.
Temperatures are not expected to shift much over the next three days, after which a fall of two to three degrees Celsius is possible.
Kolkata recorded a minimum temperature of 23.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday morning, 0.4 degrees above normal. Its maximum temperature on Saturday was 31.2 degrees Celsius, 0.5 degrees below normal.