Cyclone Fengal to form over Southwest Bay of Bengal today
Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during November 28 to 30
The deep depression over Southwest Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into cyclone Fengal on Wednesday evening and is expected to continue to move towards Tamil Nadu coast but weaken marginally before landfall.
The wind speed during landfall is expected to be around 55 to 60kmph, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The deep depression moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 10kmph and lay about 110km east of Trincomalee, 350km southeast of Nagappattinam, 450km southeast of Puducherry and 530km south-southeast of Chennai.
“It is very likely to continue to move north-northwestwards and intensify further into a cyclonic storm during the next 6 hours. Thereafter, it will continue to move north-northwestwards towards Tamil Nadu coast skirting Sri Lanka coast during subsequent two days,” IMD said on Wednesday.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during November 28 to 30.
Light to moderate rainfall is likely at many places with heavy rainfall at isolated places is likely on November 28 to 30 over coastal Andhra Pradesh. Light to moderate likely rainfall at many places with heavy rainfall at isolated places is likely on November 30 over Kerala.
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Squally wind speed reaching 55-65kmph gusting to 75kmph is likely to prevail over southwest Bay of Bengal and along & off Sri Lanka coast. It is likely to increase becoming Gale wind speed reaching 60-70kmph gusting to 80kmph over southwest Bay of Bengal and along & off Sri Lanka coasts from Wednesday evening to November 29 morning and decrease marginally becoming 60-70kmph gusting to 80kmph till night of November 29.
Tamil Nadu – Puducherry and south Andhra Pradesh can expect localised flooding of roads, water logging in low lying areas and closure of underpasses mainly in urban areas. The system is being tracked by DWR Karaikal. A continuous watch is being maintained for the movement and intensification of the system.
Currently, the system is lying very close to an intense patch of higher sea surface temperature (SST) about 30°C which would cause warm moist air incursion into the core and may lead to marginal intensification into a cyclonic storm for a short period over southwest BoB.
However, SST is relatively lower along the coast and may thus lead to slight weakening of the system before landfall. Similarly, tropical cyclone heat potential is more than 100 KJ/cm2 over southwest BoB but it is less 40-60 KJ/cm2 over southwest & adjoining eastcentral BoB and along & off Sri Lanka/Tamil Nadu/ Andhra Pradesh coasts, the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for Tropical Cyclones.
