“As of now, there is no forecast regarding landfall over India coast. This is warning for fishermen community, who are advised against venturing into the sea from May 7. No alert has been issued for the Odisha coast. There is no forecast about likely impact of the system on Odisha,” he added.
Mohapatra urged people not to panic about a possible cyclone, but remain prepared for face any eventuality. “The IMD will be providing daily updates on the development,” he said, adding that the frequency of genesis of cyclone is maximum in the month of May and Odisha has faced the nature’s fury in the past too.
On May 8 last year, cyclonic storm ‘Asani’ had developed in the Bay of Bengal but later fizzled out and later crossed Andhra coast as a Depression. The severe cyclonic storm ‘Yaas’ made landfall in Odisha’s Balasore district on the morning of May 26, 2021, while Cyclone Amphan made landfall between the Sagar islands of West Bengal and the Hatiya islands of Bangladesh on the evening of May 20, 2020.
The last storm forming in Bay of Bengal in April was ‘Fani’, which made landfall over the Odisha coast near Puri as an extremely severe cyclonic storm on May 3, 2019.