Asani not to make landfall on Odisha, AP coast: IMD

Kolkata/Bhubaneshwar:

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Severe cyclonic storm ‘Asani’ which is moving towards the east coast, packing winds above 105 kmph and setting off heavy rain, is likely to recurve in a north-eastward direction and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday.

According to IMD, the storm, lying over west-central and adjoining South Bay of Bengal, moved nearly north-westwards with a speed of 16 kmph during the past six hours and lay centred over west-central Bay of Bengal about 860 km west-northwest of Port Blair (Andaman Islands), 410 km southeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 590 km south of Puri (Odisha).

“It is very likely to move north-westwards till May 10 and reach west-central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts. Thereafter, it is very likely to re-curve north-northeast wards and move towards Northwest Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast. It is likely to weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours,” the IMD said in a special bulletin.

Gale wind speed reaching 85-95 kmph gusting to 105 kmph is likely to prevail around the system centre over west-central Bay of Bengal from May 10 morning. It would gradually decrease over west-central and adjoining Northwest Bay of Bengal by midnight. The wind speed would decrease to 65-75 kmph on May 11.

In Odisha, a yellow warning has been issued for districts such as Ganjam, Khordha, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Gajapati and Cuttack. Eleven fishermen, who were precariously stranded in a boat that developed technical snag on return to the coast, were airlifted by helicopter of the Indian Coastguard off Odisha’s Ganjam coast.

Kolkata and adjoining areas received a heavy spell of downpour on Monday morning.