The India Met Department (IMD) has delayed the timeline for the landfall of the prospective depression in the Bay of Bengal to tomorrow evening.

This gives the system more than 24 hours to travel towards the North Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coast for its projected landfall. Its track too has been shifted from northwest to north-northwest now.

'LOW' SHIFTS BASE

The preparatory well-marked 'low' has shifted base fully to the West-Central Bay of Bengal off the North Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh coast.

An update at midnight last night from the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre had indicated that landfall would not take place tomorrow morning.

IMD is now in agreement with this outlook, though it still maintains that it would happen as early as in the evening, not later into the night as the US agency seems to project.

The amended north-northwest track would take the developing depression towards the warmer pool of seawaters extending north off the North Andhra Pradesh coast.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts agrees with this outlook, allowing for its development fully as a depression just before crossing the coast.

NEW PACIFIC TYPHOON

In fact, from Day One, the European centre had ruled out intensification of the system beyond a depression. After its landfall, the Bay would prepare itself for launch of the North-East monsoon.

Meanwhile, typhoon Lan has tossed up to the east of the Philippines as the latest in the series, and promises to become a super typhoon in the North-West Pacific in due course.

'Lan' could have a major say in delaying the onset of the North-East monsoon over India's East Coast, thanks to its movement to the north-northeast, away to the south of Japan.

The strong typhoon would siphon away a good part of the flows from the Bay of Bengal, which would have otherwise organised the North-East monsoon.

But the European centre has a different take on this, saying that the storm may turn west off Taiwan and head towards the East China coast.

Meanwhile, the US Naval agency has declared a fresh cyclone alert in the North-West Pacific off the Philippines, which is a breeding ground for storms during this time of the year.

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