Low-pressure area forms over Bay of Bengal: IMD

As anticipated, a low-pressure areas have formed on Tuesday morning over South-West and adjoining West-Central Bay of Bengal, off the North Tamil Nadu coast and adjoining South Coastal Andhra Pradesh coast.

This is even as a persisting low-pressure area over the East-Central Arabian Sea awaits further traction to intensify a round to become 'well-marked', before further strengthening as a monsoon depression by Wednesday.

The India Met Department (IMD) has persisted with an outlook for the system to North-North-East over East-Central Arabian Sea (towards the Konkan-Mumbai coast) till Thursday, and then re-curve West-North-West (towards Oman-Yemen) with gradual intensification.

Ramping up monsoon

These two systems would combine to ramp up the North-East monsoon over Peninsular India, with the IMD predicting fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls during next four to five days.

Heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls is likely over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry on Tuesday and over Coastal Karnataka from Wednesday to Friday.

The Met has also forecast thunderstorms accompanied with lightning over parts of Peninsular, East and Central India during the two days when the weather systems in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal entrench themselves further. 

A detailed forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday are as follows:

Heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls at isolated places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry; heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places over Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Maharashtra and Rayalseema. Heavy rainfall at isolated places over Odisha, Marathwada, Konkan & Goa, Telangana and Lakshadweep.

Thunderstorms accompanied with lightning at isolated places over East Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Konkan & Goa, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rayalaseema, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,Puducherry and Kerala.

Squally weather is very likely over East-Central and adjoining South-East Arabian Sea along with Maharashtra-Goa-Karnataka-Kerala coasts, Lakshadweep and Comorin area.

Wet spell to continue

Similar conditions also over South-West and adjoining West-Central Bay of Bengal along with North Tamil Nadu-South Andhra Pradesh coast. Fishermen are advised not to venture into these areas on both days.

Additional atmospheric features driving the rainfall are a trough from East-Central Arabian Sea all the way to South Chhattisgarh across Goa, North Interior Karnataka and Telangana.

A cyclonic circulation over South Tamil Nadu and adjoining North Sri Lanka and Comorin, though less marked, has a trough extending to North Coastal Andhra Pradesh across South-West Bay of Bengal persists. 

Source: IMD website

An extended IMD outlook from October 27 to 29 said that fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with heavy falls are likely at isolated places over Peninsular India, East India and adjoining Central India.

The swarms of thunderstorms lurking in the skies over both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal -- with the severest of them over the latter -- have prompted passenger aircraft flying in that airspace to steer off course in order to avoid the thunderheads.

Over the Arabian Sea, a Chennai-Muscat (OmanAir), Phuket-Doha (Qatar Airways); and Jedda-Kuala Lumpur (Saudia) were flying around a thunderstorm that stood in the seas just outside Rathnagiri on the West Coast around 11:30 AM.

Likewise, a number of domestic and international flights were seen taking evasive action from a large cluster of thunderstorms standing tall over the South-West and West-Central Bay off the North Tamil Nadu and South Andhra Pradesh coasts.

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