A 'yellow message' and cyclone alert have officially been issued for the Andhra Pradesh coast as a deep depression resumed its journey from last night's brief stopover over South-East Bay of Bengal. It moved with a speed of 11 km/hr on a predicted north-west track and entered south-west and adjoining south-east Bay, slotting itself closer to the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh coasts.
Latest coordinates
India Met Department (IMD) locates the deep depression early this morning to 470 km east-north-east of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), the closest land feature as of now but which it is progressively moving away from 730 km east-south-east of Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and 930 km south-southeast of Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
Watch for its intensification as a cyclone (to be named 'Phethai') has been extended to this evening, thanks to last night's brief stopover and into a sever cyclone Monday. It would then shift track slightly to north-north-west, taking it farther away from Chennai, to cross the Andhra Pradesh coast between Ongole and Kakinada on Monday afternoon.
The IMD has said that rainfall to commence at many places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas of North Coastal Tamil Nadu from tomorrow morning with heavy falls predicted at isolated places.
High wind off Andhra coast
On Monday, the day of landfall of the severe cyclone, rains have been forecast at most places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh with heavy to very heavy falls at a few places and extremely heavy falls (20 cm or more) at isolated places.
In line with the predicted north-east movement of the remnant of the cyclone after landfall, rains would lash many places over South Chhattisgarh and Odisha tomorrow and the day after with heavy falls being forecast at isolated places.
High wind warning of various intensities are valid for the Andhra Pradesh, North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with peak speed of up to 90 km/hr gusting to 100 km/hr likely along and off Andhra Pradesh coast on Monday morning. The sea condition would range from 'very rough' (wave heights of 20 ft) over South-East and adjoining South-West Bay of Bengal and may become 'high' (wave heights of 30 ft) Saturday morning.