Bhubaneswar: Cyclonic Storm Arnab over the westcentral Bay of Bengal intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on Monday evening and is likely to further strengthen into a very severe cyclonic storm within the next 12 hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
In its latest bulletin on October 26, the IMD said the system at 5.30 PM had moved west-northwestwards at a speed of 17 kmph over the preceding six hours and was centred over the westcentral Bay of Bengal near latitude 15.6°N and longitude 87.3°E.
The storm was located about 490 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha, 490 km east-southeast of Visakhapatnam, 560 km east-southeast of Kakinada, 660 km east of Machilipatnam and 730 km east of Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh. It was also about 730 km northwest of Sri Vijaya Puram in the Andaman Islands.
According to the IMD, the system is very likely to continue moving west-northwestwards and intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm over the same region during the next 12 hours.
The storm is expected to maintain its west-northwestward movement until the evening of October 27 before turning northwestwards, the bulletin said.
Arnab is very likely to cross the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam, close to Yanam, by the forenoon of October 28 as a very severe cyclonic storm.
At landfall, the system is expected to pack maximum sustained wind speeds of 115-125 kmph, gusting to 140 kmph, the IMD said.
The weather agency has issued a red-message cyclone warning for the Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south Odisha coasts.
