Littoral nations along the Bay of Bengal have issued separate alerts over the formation of a low-pressure area in the basin and its prospective intensification as a cyclone, after the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for Tropical Cyclones over the North Indian Ocean (including the Bay and the Arabian Sea) at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declared a cyclone watch on Wednesday.

First off was the Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, the most proximate national forecast agency, which cited observations at 1.30 pm Myanmar Standard Time on Wednesday to confirm that a low-pressure area has formed over the South-East Bay and adjoining South Andaman Sea. It said the low may further intensify into a depression during the next two days and move initially to the North-West into the West-Central Bay. The Andaman Sea and the South Bay were cloudy by noon and a few clouds were spotted over the rest of the Bay.

Thai Met observation

Some distance to the East-South-East and beyond the Bay, the Thailand Meteorological Department said it had spotted an active low over the Andaman Sea. It predicted that the system would intensify and move towards the lower Bay (southern parts of the basin). It reported scattered thundershowers and South-Easterly winds speeding to 15-35 km/hour across the region (sufficient to call out for a low) and wave heights of 3-6.5 ft and about 6.5 ft or above in the thundershower areas.

Easterly to South-Easterly winds (15-30 km/hour) prevailed to both sides of the Thai Gulf with scattered thundershowers and wave heights of 6.5 ft in the thundershower areas. The Kotabaru to Singapore stretch featured cloudy skies and isolated thundershowers, easterly winds (10-30 km/hr) and wave heights of below 3 ft and about 6.5 ft in the thundershower areas. Indochina was partly cloudy and witnessed isolated thundershowers, South-Easterly winds (10-30 km/hour) and wave heights of 3 ft and above.

Rough weather for Lanka

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka to the West-South-West witnessed active cloudiness in the seas off the coast extending from Galle to Hambantota via Matara. The Sri Lanka Meteorological Department warned the public about the possibility for heavy showers/thundershowers and sudden rough state of the seas, associated with sudden increase of wind speed (up to 70-80 km/hour). Navel and fishing communities have been directed to stay vigilant.

Thunder clouds had formed along the Western, South-Western, Southern and South-Eastern sea areas from the morning. The showers over the island were likely to scale up due to the low level atmospheric disturbance in its vicinity (cyclonic circulation over the Comorin region). The island nation is caught right in the midst of Westerly to South-Westerly flows headed into the Bay, getting amplified by the cyclonic circulation.

The Met Department warned the general public to take precautions to minimise damages from lightning and localised strong winds. Sri Lanka is the fourth pit-stop for the monsoon after it races in first into the Maldives (expected any time), the Bay (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) and Myanmar before reaching Kerala over mainland India.