IMD issues alert on cyclonic storm; likely to affect Mumbai & Konkan

Mumbai: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday warned of a cyclonic storm developing in the Arabian Sea, which may hit Mumbai and the coastal Konkan region.

According to IMD, a low-pressure area over the southeast and the adjoining southwest Arabian Sea has developed into a depression and is expected to intensify into a cyclonic storm by October 21 morning.

This would be the second cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea this year and will be called 'Tej', according to a formula followed for naming cyclones in the Indian Ocean Region.

In a post on X, the IMD said that a depression was formed over the South-west Arabian Sea around 920 east-southeast of Socotra in Yemen, 1190 km southeast of Salalah Airport in Oman at 8.30 a.m.

“It is to intensify into a cyclonic storm during the next 24 hours and further into a severe cyclonic storm on October 22 (Sunday),” the IMD has forecast.

The depression is expected to move towards south Oman and adjoining Yemen coasts.

However, meteorologists caution that at times, storms may deviate from the predicted track and intensity, as seen in the case of cyclone Biparjoy, which formed in the Arabian Sea in June and initially moved in a north-northwest direction before changing course to make landfall between Mandvi in Gujarat and Karachi in Pakistan.

The IMD observations of Thursday night indicated that the low-pressure area over the southeast and adjoining southwest Arabian Sea was moving westwards and lay as a well-marked low-pressure area over the southwest Arabian Sea around midnight of October 19.

Owing to these disturbances, the wind speeds will touch up to 55-60 kmph in south east Arabian Sea, and increase up to 65-70 kmph on Saturday-Sunday, creating very rough sea conditions, and fishers have been advised against venturing into the sea till Monday.

The IMD also said a low-pressure area over the southwest and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal (BOB) is likely to intensify into a depression over the west-central BOB around October 22.

The system is likely to move west-northwestwards until Sunday morning and then recurve north-northeast wards towards the Bangladesh coast, it said.

With inputs from agencies