Tamil Nadu cyclonic storm 'Asani': Cyclone warning mounted at Pamban Port

Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu): The Port officer of Tamil Nadu's Pamban on Sunday said that the 'cyclone warning cage no 2' has been mounted at Pamban port, in the view of severe cyclonic storm 'Asani' over the Bay of Bengal. "Yesterday's Deep Depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal moved west-northwestwards and intensified into a Cyclonic Storm 'Asani' (pronounced as Asani) over the same region at 5.30 am today and lay centered at 8.30 am today near latitude 11.4°N and longitude 89.1°E, about 480 km west-northwest of Car Nicobar (Nicobar Islands), 400 km west of Port Blair (Andaman Islands), 940 km southeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 1000 km south-southeast of Puri (Odisha)", stated the Pamban port officer.

"The number two storm warning cage has been mounted at Pamban Port in view of the storm risk", added the official. India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday said that the cyclonic storm named 'Asani' is expected to further intensify in the next 24 hours. Earlier on Saturday, the department had predicted that a depression has formed over the southeast Bay of Bengal about 170km west of Car Nicobar and is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by May 8.

Speaking to ANI, Senior Scientist, Umashankar Das said, "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. However, the scientist denied the possibility of landfall and said that it will recurve and move parallel to the Odisha coast. Das predicted rainfall by the evening of May 10 and said that a yellow warning has been issued for three districts of Odisha.

"Rainfall will commence on 10th May evening, a yellow warning for rainfall issued has been for three districts -- Gajpati, Ganjam, and Puri. On May 11, heavy rainfall warning has been issued for five districts -- Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Cuttack and Ganjam," he said. On the contrary weather condition in some parts of the country, the IMD predicted heatwave conditions in the isolated pockets likely over Vidarbha from May 8 to 12, West Rajasthan from May 8 to 12, South Haryana and East Rajasthan from May 9 to 12, West Madhya Pradesh on May 8 and 9, South Punjab and Jammu division during May 10 to 12.

(ANI)