PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, May 7: A tropical cyclone Asani (name given by Sri Lanka ) which is brewing over the southern Bay of Bengal might impact Jharkhand and its two neighbouring states- Odisha and Bengal in the next 48 to 72 hours, said weathermen today.
IMD officials said the low-pressure area over the South Andaman Sea and Southeast Bay of Bengal along with an associated cyclonic circulation extending up to mid-tropospheric levels persists.
The system is very likely to move northwestwards and intensify into a depression by today evening and further into a cyclonic storm by the evening of May 8, Sunday.
It is also very likely to continue to move northwestwards and reach the west-central Bay of Bengal off the north Andhra-Odisha coasts by May 10, Tuesday.
Though weathermen said it is early to predict the cyclone and that things will be clearer in the next 24 hours. But, May is a ripe time for tropical cyclones and the possibility is not ruled out. If the system intensifies into a cyclone, it will be the third in May in three consecutive years after Amphan in 2020 and Yaas in 2021.
The system will be moving in a north-northwestward direction towards the Bay of Bengal, said an IMD official. Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Bengal are all possible destinations, as are Bangladesh and Myanmar.
May is a fertile time for cyclones on the Bay because of higher sea surface temperature, a key requirement for the formation of cyclones. But there are other factors that can make or break a cyclone, explained weathermen.
Today’s satellite pictures suggested a separate cyclonic circulation hovering over southeast Madhya Pradesh at 0.9 Km above the mean sea level.
A senior IMD official in New Delhi said that there is an appreciable increase in the frequency of tropical storms between April and May. Most of these storms develop between 10°N and 15°N over the Bay of Bengal. Initially, these systems move northwest and later recurve northeastward.
The Odisha government has kept NDRF and fire fighting teams on alert over the possible cyclonic storm. As many as 18 districts are likely to be affected, in case the cyclone occurs, said the IMD official.
Head of IMD’s Ranchi Met Centre Abhishek Anand said, “Currently, in eastern India covering Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha, there is active thunderstorm activity happening for the last one week or so and hence the temperature will be near normal. There are no heatwave conditions.”
He said that they are keeping a watch on the developments in the Bay of Bengal and that things would be more clear in the next 48 hours.
The wind speed because of the low pressure which is expected to precipitate into depression is likely to be around 40-50 kmph from initially, which will further increase to 55-65 kmph gusting up to 75 kmph around May 8.
