Cyclone Mandous Likely To Form Over Bay By Dec 8; Who Named It & What It Means

Bhubaneswar: The low pressure over southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining south Andaman sea now lies as a well-marked area over southeast Bay of Bengal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) informed on Tuesday.

“It is likely to move west­northwestwards and concentrate into a depression over southeast Bay of Bengal by today evening. Thereafter, it is likely to continue to move west­northwestwards, intensify further gradually into a cyclonic storm and reach southwest Bay of Bengal near north Tamil Nadu­-Puducherry & adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts by December 8 morning.,” it added. 

“We haven’t given a forecast for landfall yet,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at the weather office.

Some projections suggest that this system will decline into a ‘depression’ again before making a landfall around Puducherry on Friday afternoon (December 9). If the system completely evolves into a tropical cyclone, it will be the second post-monsoon cyclone after ‘Sitrang’ and will be named ‘Mandous’, as suggested by the United Arab Emirates. In Arabic, Mandous means a treasure box.

EXTREME RAIN & SQUALL

Most places in Andaman & Nicobar Islands will experience rain and squally weather with wind speed reaching 40-45 kmph gusting to 55 kmph on Tuesday (December 6). Rain is likely to start over north coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal from December 7 midnight and increase on December 8 and 9, the weather bureau said.

South Andhra Pradesh will see rain from December 7 midnight, which will increase on December 8 and 9. Wind speeds could reach 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph on December 7, and gale wind speed reaching 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph is likely on December 8.

Squally winds reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph is likely along and off Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, south Andhra Pradesh and north Sri Lanka coasts from December 8, increasing to 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph from December 8 evening to December 9 morning.

It is likely to reduce to 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph by December 9 evening, the IMD added.

While the system is unlikely to have any impact on Odisha, the MeT office has forecast a fall in night temperature in the state by about 2°C.

“A tropical low over the south Andaman Sea will strengthen to a depression in the next day or so & can become a cyclonic storm before threatening Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry late this week,” leading meteorologist Jason Nicholls tweeted.