Cyclone Asani likely to intensify into severe cyclonic storm; alert sounded in Andhra, Odisha, Bengal
The Indian Meteorological Department on Sunday, May 8, said that Cyclone Asani is likely to intensify into a ‘severe cyclonic storm in the next 12 hours
The weather department bulletin said, “The cyclonic storm ‘Asani’ moved northwestwards over the Bay of Bengal with a speed of 13 kmph and lay centered about 480 km west¬northwest of Car Nicobar (Nicobar Islands), 400km west of Port Blair (Andaman Islands), 940 km southeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 1000 km south southeast of Puri (Odisha), at 08.30 hours IST on May 8.”
According to Andhra’s Amaravati Meteorological centre, cyclone Asani is very likely to continue to move northwestwards till May 10 evening and reach westcentral and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts.
After that, it is very likely to recurve north-northeastwards and move towards the northwest Bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast.
On Saturday, the weather office said that Cyclone Asani would not make landfall in either Odisha or Andhra Pradesh, but would move parallel to the coast.
The governments of Odisha and West Bengal have taken all precautionary measures to deal with the situation.
