Bhubaneswar: The deep depression over southwest and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 17 kmph during past six hours and intensified into a cyclonic storm Phethai (pronounced as Pay-ti)’, according to the latest India Meteorological Department (IMD) Saturday bulletin.
Now, it lay centred over southwest Bay of Bengal, about 440 km east-northeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 590 km east-southeast of Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and 770 km south-southeast of Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
It is very likely to intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm during next 24 hours and move north-northwestwards and cross Andhra Pradesh coast between Machilipatnam and Kakinada on December 17 afternoon, it added.
According to Dr. S C Sahu, Director of Center for Environment and Climate (CEC) of the SOA Deemed University here, the system had moved in a west-north-westward direction and was centered about 1,115 km south of Gopalpur over the south-east and adjoining
south-west Bay of Bengal at 8.30 pm on Saturday.
The system, which had moved at a speed of 13 kmph for six hours on Saturday morning, was expected to intensify into a cyclonic storm within the next 24 hours and move in a north-north-westward direction before crossing the Andhra Pradesh coast on December 17, he said.
