Weather: South Tamil Nadu, Kerala gear up for ‘Burevi’

Cyclonic Storm ‘Burevi’ over the Gulf of Mannar had moved westwards into Thursday afternoon and lay centred 2.30 pm close to Pamban (South Tamil Nadu) about 70 km West-North-West of Mannar (Sri Lanka) and 230 km East-North-East of Kanniyakumari (South Tamil Nadu) packing wind speeds of 70-80 km/hr gusting to 90 km/hr, as per an evening update from India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The cyclone was expected to move across Pamban later into the evening on Thursday, but would shift track to West-South-West along the South-East Tamil Nadu coast and precipitate a landfall between Pamban and Kanniyakumari by night or early on Friday morning as a cyclone with wind speeds of 70-80 gusting to 90 kmph.

Heavy rains lash TN

The IMD estimated that the cyclone would continue to impact over Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi districts in South Tamil Nadu before bringing under its grip neighbouring Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts as well as those in South Kerala till the early hours of Friday. Heavy rain has been reported from many parts of the region until Thursday morning even as it continued to rain through the day.

As for Friday, post-landfall of the cyclone over the South Tamil Nadu coast, the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai has forecast heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over Theni, Dindigul, Nilgiris, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu; the Lakshadweep Islands and Kerala. Heavy rain is also likely to occur at isolated places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema.

Landfall over Lanka

Cyclone ‘Burevi’ had made the first landfall over Sri Lanka earlier last night (Wednesday) when it crossed the East Coast of the island North of Trincomalee between 10.30 pm and 11.30 pm. The Sri Lanka Meteorological Department said that the centre of the cyclone had crossed the North-East coast between Kuchchaveli and Thiriyayi between 10.30-11.30 pm.