Breaking
Deep depression over Bay of Bengal intensifies into Cyclonic Storm ‘Gulab’; IMD issues orange alert for south Odisha, north AP
ODISHA: After what has been an unusually active period of activity in the Bay of Bengal — which saw the formation of as many as six low-pressure systems since the end of August 2021, followed by their movement inland — the Bay is now set to witness Cyclone Gulab.
The intensification of this system into a cyclonic storm is a highly unusual phenomenon, considering the temperature across the Bay of Bengal remains too low between the monsoon months of June to September to support cyclone formation. Nevertheless, Gulab looks set to ‘bloom’ in the next 24 hours.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the LPA system, which was located as a depression over northeast and adjoining east-central Bay of Bengal, has moved westwards and intensified into a deep depression in the past six hours.
As of 5:30 a.m. IST on Saturday, it was located over north and adjoining east-central Bay of Bengal near Lat. 18.4°N and Long. 89.7°E, about 510 km east-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha) and 590 km east-northeast of Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
From here on, the Met team has predicted that the deep depression will intensify into a cyclonic storm on Saturday itself. A system is categorised as a cyclonic storm when its sustained wind speed is between 63–88 kmph. In comparison, a deep depression has sustained wind speed between 51–62 kmph, and a depression, between 31–50 kmph.
However, conditions within the Bay of Bengal will not be ideal to sustain the cyclone, and the system will once again de-intensify into a deep depression over west-central Bay of Bengal on Sunday.
The deep depression is forecast to make landfall over the Odisha coast on Sunday night or Monday early morning. The IMD expects it to cross over to the land between the north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts between Vishakhapatnam and Gopalpur, around Kalingapatnam, by Sunday evening.
Post landfall, the system will further weaken into a depression by Monday, and continue moving west-northwestwards, reaching south Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday morning and possibly Gujarat on Wednesday morning.