A low-pressure area over the South Andaman Sea is set to turn into a cyclone – to be named Asani – by Sunday and may move north towards India’s eastern coast, the India Meteorological Department has said. IMD officials said the low-pressure area would likely intensify into a depression by Saturday evening and into a cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal 24 hours later. It is then expected to continue north-northwest and near coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha by May 10. Asani is likely to make landfall between Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneshwar between May 10 and 11.
Where is Asani now?
On Friday the low-pressure area was over 1,000 km from the Indian coastline. The weather department is due to provide further updates on its current position later today.
What is its predicted path?
Projections show the weather system moving at an increasing rate of knots over the next four days. Expected speed is 25 knots tomorrow and a maximum of 45 knots on May 10, when it is expected to have transformed into a cyclone.
Is date and location of landfall confirmed?
No. Experts have stressed that it is still too early predict the weather system’s precise progression. “There is a lot of divergence between what different models are showing. The model forecasts are also changing frequently… so we can’t say immediately if this cyclone will make landfall…” Ananda Kumar Das, in-charge of the IMD’s cyclone monitoring department, said.