Bhubaneswar: With Cyclone Gulab advancing further towards Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coasts, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday said that the landfall near Kalingapatnam coast in Andhra Pradesh is likely to begin after 9 pm.
The landfall process will continue for around three hours, following which the cyclonic storm will remain as a depression for the next 12 hours.
After the landfall, the system is likely to maintain the cyclonic storm intensity with a slight weakening of wind speed during the subsequent six hours over south Odisha and adjoining north coastal Andhra Pradesh. It is likely to move west-northwestwards across south Odisha and South Chhattisgarh and gradually weaken into a depression during the subsequent 12 hours.
According to IMD’s special bulletin, the cyclonic storm over the north-west and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal moved nearly westwards with a speed of 10 kmph during the last 6 hours and lay centred at 5.30 am over the north-west and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal about 270 km east-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha) and 330 km east of Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
The system is likely to move nearly westwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh and South Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur as a cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 75-85 kmph gusting to 95 kmph, around midnight.
As the cyclonic storm will trigger heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy rainfall at one or two places, the IMD has issued red, orange and yellow warnings for the following districts:
September 26
(Red warning)
Heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy falls at one or two places over the districts of Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri.
(Orange warning)
Heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places over the districts of Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh and Kalahandi.
(Yellow warning)
Heavy rainfall at one or two places over the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Cuttack, Boudh, Sonepur, Balangir and Nuapada.
September 27
(Orange warning)
Heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places over the districts of Nawarangpur, Koraput, and Malkangiri.
(Yellow warning)
Heavy rain at one or two places over the districts of Nuapada, Balangir and Kalahandi.
