India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday said that the cyclonic storm named ‘Asani’ is predicted to further intensify in the next 24 hours.
Earlier on Saturday, the department warned that a depression formed over the southeast Bay of Bengal about 170km west of Car Nicobar and is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by 8th May.
Speaking to ANI, Senior Scientist, Umashankar Das, denied the possibility of landfall and stated that the storm would recurve and proceed parallel to the Odisha coast.
Also stated, “The deep depression has intensified into a cyclonic storm named ‘Asani’. It’s moving at 16 kmph in a northwest direction. It is at 970 km in the southeast direction from Vishakapatnam and 1,020 km in the southeast direction from Puri.”
“We are expecting it’ll move in northwest direction till May 10 evening. Possibility, it’ll further intensify into a severe cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours,” he added.
Das forecast rain for the evening of 10th May and said a yellow alert had been issued for three Odisha districts; Gajpati, Ganjam, and Puri.
On 11th May, five districts — Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Cuttack, and Ganjam — were given a severe rainfall warnings.
Despite the adverse weather conditions in several areas of the nation, the IMD forecasted heat waves in isolated pockets across Vidarbha from 8th to 12th May, South Haryana and East Rajasthan from 9th to 12th May, West Madhya Pradesh from 8th to 9th May, and South Punjab and Jammu division from 10th to 12th May.