Cyclone landfall unlikely, minimal effect on city

By Maqsood Maniyar

Bengaluru: The cyclone Asani located off the coast of Bay of Bengal is unlikely to make landfall and will probably weaken into a depression, which will result in minimal effect on Bengaluru.

Overcast weather and light rainfall is forecast in the coming two days. The information was disclosed by India Meteorological Department (IMD) to News Trail on Wednesday. Scientist-F at IMD Geeta Agnihotri said that they had been tracking the cyclone and had revised their estimation. “It (the cyclone) has not made landfall. Its just skirting the Andhra Pradesh coast. In fact, it is not likely to make landfall at all. It is going to weaken into a depression,” she said.

Agnihotri added that factors such as Bengaluru’s distance from the system, the weakening of the storm and the likelihood of it not making landfall would mean little effect on the city. “Bengaluru and south interior Karnataka are in the fringe of this system. Therefore there will not be an impact in terms of heavy rainfall but there can be a possibility of small thunderstorms over south interior Karnataka. Thunderstorms can occur but heavy rainfall is not expected,” she said. “The overcast weather is due to the cyclone as well. It is likely to continue for two more days, I think,” she added.

The IMD scientist said that there was a difference between summer showers and cyclone-induced rain. The former is convective (caused by evaporation of water due to the sun’s heat), she added. “In April and earlier in May, what we received were convective rains (summer showers). This rainfall that we are receiving now is due to the cyclone. Yesterday (Tuesday) we received some 5.2 mm of rainfall, that is due to the cyclone being in the periphery,” Agnihotri said.

‘Cyclone close to AP coast’
An IMD bulletin said that the system was some 30 kms off the coast of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh as of Wednesday afternoon. Itadded that the system was likely to weaken into a deep depression on late Wednesday and a further loss intensity into a depression on Thursday.