India weather forecast: Low-pressure area forms in Bay

As expected, a low-pressure area has formed over South-West Bay of Bengal, which is expected to intensify as a depression within the next two days.

India Met Department (IMD) said that that the depression would intensify further before hitting the Odisha-North Andhra Pradesh coast on Thursday morning.

LIKELY CYCLONE?

A couple of global models said that there is a tropical cyclone of moderate strength in the making over the Bay, though the IMD stopped short of taking the call.

But its wind-field projections suggested that a cyclone may be brewing and could target mostly the Andhra Pradesh coast by Thursday.

The Bay had witnessed the formation of a deep depression that did not grow into a full-fledged cyclone hitting the Bengal coast last week, the first in the post-monsoon phase.

The prospective depression/cyclone now brewing in the Bay will bring heavy rain along the East Coast and also into adjoining Central India during the latter part of this week.

SHIP CAPSIZE

Meanwhile, the presence of a typhoon next door in the South China Sea could delay the formation of the 'low' in the Bay since they would be sharing the same moisture flow.

Typhoon Khanun has been travelling west-northwestwards and approaching Hong Kong and Hainan Island, and is expected to hit Vietnam in a couple of days.

A Hong Kong-registered cargo vessel with 11 crew of India origin on board had been caught up in the typhoon and sank two days ago 280 km east of the northern tip of the Philippines. All are missing.

A good part of the south-westerly flows generated by the typhoon in the process over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal is going to feed it, and is expected to so until it hits Vietnam and weakens.

IMD expects the 'low' in Bay to intensify after two days, which gives the allowance for the typhoon to spend itself out over Vietnam and lose strength.

RAIN OVER SOUTH

Meanwhile, the south-westerly monsoon flows triggered by the typhoon has been bringing moderate to heavy rain over many parts of the peninsula over the past couple of days.

According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre, typhoon Khanun will move south-west over Vietnam before reaching Cambodia and could send in a 'pulse' into the Gulf of Thailand and Bay of Bengal.

The US Climate Prediction Centre sees this pulse setting up a follow-up 'tropical disturbance' in the Bay, which the IMD seems to agree with, in as much as it signals the formation of a fresh low-pressure area.

Although north-easterly winds are shown to establish over the northern parts of the peninsular seas, the arrival of North-East monsoon might get delayed over the South as per IMD forecasts.